A flat tire and a "good samaritan"

The drive from Camp Sumatanga is a long one, anywhere from 2 1/2 hours to 3 hours. All these years of going there I have made it to and from safely and without anything going wrong with the car.

But not this time. And really it was my fault, I did what they tell you not to do, I looked down to take care of something, and bang hit a curb. I did it on the highway in Moulton in front of a church, a Baptist church. I drove the car off into the church's parking lot.

I called Bob to tell him what had happened. I was at this point about an hour from home. He said he would come down to help me.

Now in the van, the tire is under the floor between the front seats and the next row. First you have to move away from the carpet area anything your kids have thrown down, or that you have set back there as well. It doesn't matter where you put that stuff now, just get it out of the way. You have to take the carpet up, and then lift up the cover. Fortunately it has a way to hook it to one of the seats to hold it up. You have to unscrew the tire and lift it out of its holder, maneuver it between the seats, and then get it out of the car. I got it done.

Then you have to go to the back of the van, move everything out of the way that you have back there already or have thrown back there to make room for getting the tire out of the floor. Then they have this net that hold things that you have to take down and take out whatever it is holding. Then you unscrew this side panel and there is your jack in three parts. You can pull out the two parts easily, but then you have to unscrew the top part of the actual jack, in a limited area to get it unscrewed in, to get it out. It will come out after doing that and getting stuck several times.

After wrestling with the things in your car, the carpet, the cover, the tire, and the jack you are now ready to fix your tire. Wooh I am already beat. Then you make sure you put your jack in the right place to jack up your car so you can take the tire off. At that moment a good samaritan will drive up, and right on time one does. It happens every time. Actually I was glad he did, because I was so tired from wrestling with everything else don't you know. He got the tire changed. And I was glad he came because for some reason the car rolled off the jack and he had to rejack it up, and the lug nuts were so tight he had to work hard to get them off. I also had to go get air put in the little spare tire.

Bob and the kids met me at the gas station. I was so glad to see them. He followed me all the way home in case something else happened. Today he is going to get that tire replaced and another one.

Thank you to my good samaritan that stopped and helped me when no one else did.