Evidently picnic table wood doesn't do the trick when you knock on it. I had a tire blowout on the Westbank Expressway this morning as I was leaving New Orleans. Just as I was coming up on the toll boothes to cross the Mississippi river I heard the loud boom and immediately the kathunk, kathunk and the near loss of control. I was in the left lane and there was no way to make it over to the right hand side so I was stuck!! Luckily I was close to an HOV exit so I kathunked on as far as I could before it sounded like I was pushing my luck on the rim. It put me off to the side far enough to be out of the main lane of traffic. I was pretty shaken up but it could have been so much worse! Eventually a copcar stopped behind me, and both the cops got out....probably didn't know what the hell I was up to hanging out on the side of the freeway but a quick glance at the tire and they were as nice as could be. They waited with me until the tow truck showed...which took forever....AAA....gets a FFF for today. When the guy finally showed it only took him ten minutes tops, and good thing too because right as I was pulling away it started to rain.
I was still feeling a little disconcerted by the whole thing as I continued on I10. The guy had put on the spare which is a brand new tire and the other ones are pretty worn so I decided to stop at the next walmart, pickup 1 more new tire so I would have at least 2 matching tires, and then put one of the worn ones on o the rim the spare was on and remount it as a spare underneath. Makes sense right? Plus I'd have them do the oil change and check all of the fluids etc. hoping that it would up my confidence about all the driving I still have ahead of me.
It didn't quite work out how I'd planned. 3 and half hours later I'm sitting at the starbucks across the parking lot because they didn't do what I'd asked....and when I called them on it, they said that they're not supposed to mount used tires (meaning the spare) and they should have told me that when I got there.....which would have been fine if they had in fact told me that I would have just gone somewhere else...no big deal. And the new one that was mounted on one of the matching rims was all messed up, no cover on it, no 4 wheel drive thing.... It turns out that the tow truck driver had removed it when he mounted the spare but the walmart guy says it's not supposed to come off. So I don't know how jacked up my 4 wheel drive is, but I do know that 4X4 repairs tend to be pretty costly!!!!
So here I wait, I'll be going back there in just a few minutes to see what they've actually done to my car, but I'm about done for the day.
By the way.....I tried to get pics of the Armadillo but it was dusk and he just kept blending in with the grass!!!! Plus I know nothing about the little armored beasts....do they charge, bite, carry exotic armadillo diseases????
4 comments:
Not knowing just what you're talking about with the 4x4 cover, I'm not sure. Sounds like the tow drive just removed the cap, that covers the lug nuts. But like I said, not sure. I don't think he would have taken anyting off, that would cause the truck not to work. Wally World is really driving me nuts. And it's a short road! I won't go back to them. I was stuck at the Union City one, for three hours also, getting four new tires and a oil change. That was two years ago.
Glad you handled the blow-out ok!! Never easy, even if in the right lane.
Dillo's are pretty harmless. They are pretty shy. And can dig a hole almost faster than it take for me to write this. Or do the roll-up thing. What, you don't have a flash on the camera?
Hope you didn't pull out to much hair at Wally World!
Steve
I have a few bald spots....but I'm hoping it won't take too long to grow back.....maybe it'll come back w/out the little grey ones!!
I'm really bummed about the Dillo pics, and the other thing that I didn't get a pic of was a Cardinal..Every time I saw the little red guy I was sans camera.
I'm sorry I'm missing Bonoroo. I can understand the alone in a crowd thing. There was one day at the Strawberry Festival when Vicky and the rest of the camp and I were separated all day. I didn't know what to do with myself. I tried just sitting watching a concert, but then I walked, ate, panicked ... you know, the usual "Brain" paranoia.
However, you're much better at talking to strangers than I am. I think you will be fine.
Speaking of Vicky, I'm not sure about this Europe trip. First of all we haven't gotten together on the details, like when, where and how. And second, I may have to make time to find an apartment in LA.
My housing assignment came in, a two bedroom student apartment with four other people. Uh... maybe when I was 20!
I'll talk to you soon. I would have totally wanted to go on the ghost and/or vampire tour, sounds awesome. When I worked for Rhonda, she came back from New Orleans with a voodoo doll just for me from the Voodoo Museum. It kinda scared me.
Of course, I now read this Wednesday.... But I was talking to you when you in the middle of Wal-Mart, so I guess I was most up to date.
I hope the car is doing better and gas prices are staying away from absolutely insane prices. Here it's going up to about $4.50 Frak!
Love ya!
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