The UnPlanned

Obviously not everything turns out perfectly and accidents happen.  Today was a perfect day marred by the unexpected and it was interesting to note the different reactions from each of our children.

To start at the beginning, Kent's been wearing his cowboy boots to work.  See, without a steady paycheck for the four months before he started his new job, buying decent dress shoes wasn't high on his list.  Aching feet however pushed the need for new shoes to the forefront and Kent decided he'd better invest in something that would be kind to his feet.  The ever expensive "Sass" shoes.

Yes if you have foot problems, the hype is 100% true, they are wonderful but not something we've ever purchases before.  We're such "make do" type of people.

The store to buy Sass shoes is in Idaho Falls.  Not to far away, only about forty minutes from our house but still, it would take up the afternoon.  So Kent decided he wanted to make a day of it.  Bring the kids, invite my mom, bring a picnic lunch, go to the Idaho Falls Temple visitor center, buy Sass shoes and finish it all off with the Holy Grail of outdoors men, the army surplus store.

With the exception of the five year old that avoids pooping if you don't remind him, and he starts "leaking" (the clean-up included tossing the undies and having the child spend the rest of the day "commando" ) everything listed above went pretty smoothly.

Although we did almost have a meltdown with a bunch of boys, the ringleader being the tallest, seven year old red head that fell in love with this crappy $20.00 plastic gun.  Oh boy did the boys covet those guns.  They were everything little boy dreams are made of and they looked like maybe they might even last all the way home before breaking.  They stayed at the store much to Ean's utter disappointment.

Then the trip home.  We knew something was wrong on the way up.  Kent was unable to go 75 without the suburban shaking.  Kent even had me stick my head out the window to see if I could perceive either tire on the passenger side shaking.  I couldn't tell, with the car vibrating, how was I suppose to tell between me shaking or the tire shaking?

So going home Kent was going slow, maybe 60 in a 75 zone.

Just before Blackfoot the driver's side back tire blew.  Loud noise, a slight loss of control as we jerked towed the fast lane, which was thankfully empty.  Kent was able to quickly get control, pull over and break quickly.  For a busy day, there amazingly wasn't any vehicles near us, either in front or back or in the other Lane.

Kate was almost in hysterics.  Talk about panic.  We had to talk her down and repeatedly remind her that YES if was scary BUT look no one is hurt.


Jane was antsy to get out and see but my mom chewed her out (took three chewing outs before she stayed in the car.)

We were on the right side of row, on a highway with a speed limit of 75 and there were tons of semi's and campers driving southbound.  What Jane had trouble understanding was that even though she had sense to stay well away from traffic, if she was out her brothers would pile out and that would be far to dangerous.

Speaking of dangerous, the kids were all chewed out by my mom for wiggling as Kent was jacking up the car.

Hot and dusty, Kent got the tire changed.  I did not like seeing cars zipping past just three feet from husband as he was laying on the road trying to jack up the car.

With all things, it could have been worse.  Just a few weeks ago we were in Yellowstone and can you imagine what a disaster if that tire had blown with the trailer attached?

I had a few drinks left over from lunch, which I let the kids take turns sipping, mostly to give them something to do.  I kept one drink aside for the man doing all the physical labor in the heat.

The spare was low on air but Kent figured he'd make it just fine and we went a bit slower then normal although Kent was regretting his decision when we stopped for air in Pocatello and the smell of hot, smoky rubber hit us.

We went straight home and Kent doused the tire with water to cool everything off, and then he noticed the smoking rubber was really from the tread of the blown tire that had wrapped itself around the axle.  Kent doesn't know how he missed that and we all said a prayer of thanks for getting home safely.

It was while removing the tread from the axle that Ean learned how to work a jack.  Something every seven year old should learn!

So more eventful then we wanted but thankfully not worst.   The only wound we have, is from the cash we need to dip into savings in order to get new tires.