Ok, so there I was, speeding down I-65, suddenly, *boom!*. Auuuugh! My tire literally blew up! So yeah, I handled that - stopped, pulled over as quickly as possible, and just sat there stunned for a second - and lucky me - there was literally no shoulder on this stretch of highway for what looked to be miles. I took my chances, rolled my car as far into the median as I could without sinking in to what was shaping up to be a pretty decent mud puddle.

So…as any logical person would probably guess, mud + car jack = not fun. I sat there on my knees in this mud crap for like 30 minutes trying to jack up my car…finally success! I removed the tire, turned around to get the spare, lined it up..but wait. Crap. Spare won’t fit. The jack is SINKING! So there I am. Sitting next to my car in between two lanes of highway. I felt like a bit of a spectacle just sitting outside.

Two cops stopped by to try to help me in this period, one giving up a little earlier than I think he should have (He had a jack

that I’m pretty positive would have raised my car out of the muck well enough, but after I tried to crank it up and it slipped once, he concluded that it would definitely not work.)

Finally, tow truck arrives. He pulls out pretty much the exact same type of jack that the cop had, lifted up my car, placed the spare, $45 down the drain for that. Oh well, I was happy to be out of there even though I was cold, my hands were dry and sore from the salty residue that is apparently in every nook and cranny of my car, and my legs covered in the mud I was kneeling in.

Finally, after searching a bit, I found a Sears Automotive (which oddly enough is the exact same one me and Kevin had to visit to fix HIS flat on that same stretch of cursed highway). They diagnosed it as an alignment problem and I had my tires replaced and all that crap. took a few hours but I’m sure it’s good that I got it done before my long drive to Florida.

So, in short. A 3 hour trip took me 9 hours today.

Close up of the missing wheel for your viewing pleasure: