Busting my Tire and what follows.

Friday evening, I was meeting Leslie and Lily at Pizza Plus to go get supper before I had to go to work that night. As I was pulling into the parking lot, I turned too wide, and knew I was going to hit the curb in the parking lot. Instead of stopping and backing up to correct my mistake, I pressed the gas deciding to go over the curb. BIG MISTAKE! As soon as I made contact with the curb I hear a big gush. I am thinking I tore out my whole front end of my car. I make it to a parking space, get out and scream to Leslie, "I just fucked up my car." Leslie was calm and I don't really remember what she said. At that point I saw that it looked like I just busted my tire possibly bending my rim. So we go on in and eat, which I am stressed and upset, so I don't eat a lot...

30 minutes later...

We go back to the parking lot to put on my spare tire, which I did not know I had. I haven't needed it for the 10 months I have owned this car. I did know that I had a jack and wrench to change my tire because Steven changed my breaks with them in Auto Zone parking lot back in December. So I was determined to change this tire on my own. I had never really had to change my tires. Steven was always the one to do it. I knew how, but just never did it. I started loosing up the bolt, while Leslie and Lily supervised. I stood up for one second to take a breather, and some guy with out asking if we needed help, just jumped in and started where I had left off. I am grateful for his help, but I so wanted to change this tire on my own. I didn't need the help. We had to change my tire on incline and I had pulled the e-brake, but my car once he started jacking it up started to roll backward and fell off the jack. Thankful that now was got hurt. If I would have been changing the tire and this happened, I would of been scared to death. After this we got things out of my trunk and put behind my back wheels so it wouldn't roll backwards anymore. I guess carrying a lot of junk comes in handy sometimes.

10 or so minutes later...

The spare is on, and the car is let down off the jack. THE SPARE GOES FLAT! Great, now what? I have to be at work tonight, and all the tire places are closed. So Leslie talks to the manager, and tells him the situation, and we leave the car there for the night. The Spare has just enough air so me can move it to flatter area.

20 minutes later...

I go to talk to Austyn to see if his mom could borrow his car to take me to work. His car gets better gas mileage than Leslie's truck. I walk in covered in grease with a cut on my head. Oh, when I hit the curb I had a pair of sunglasses on my visor that I hit and scratched my head. It wasn't bad just a small scratch. But anyways, he asks if I wrecked my car. So I tell him the whole story.

Long story, I make it to work on time.

Saturday Morning...

Leslie picks me up from work the next working and we go get a tire for my car. I am at this point determined to change this tire on my own. We get back to the parking lot. I change my tire. It takes me a little bit to get my car jack up high enough to take the spare off and get the tire back own. But I do it. I changed my tire all by myself. When I asked Les for advice, she would answer, but she did not touch the tire.  I am drenched in sweat and covered with grease,  but I changed my tire all on my own. I am proud of myself. I always had the ability, but never had to do it.

Photo Cred to Leslie.

My car seemed to be fine. It's out of align. I am lucky nothing major happened.

Sunday...

After I get off work, Leslie texted me to see if I wanted to go to Asheville for the morning. I would be back in time to sleep before working that night. I don't go to bed before noon anyways for if I do, I will be awake at around 3 or 4 and can't go back to sleep. When I get home, we head off to Asheville in my car since it gets better gas mileage.

As we are heading over the mountains, I get a real bad vibration my car, and I can tell it is coming from the front end. So 15 miles from Asheville, I pull into a gas station to check my air pressure of my tires. At this point the vibration was so bad it was vibrating my whole body and was hard to drive. My back two tires are low, so I put air in them. Les takes over driving. It's still vibrating really bad, so it wasn't low tire pressure. Les thinks I messed up a tire rod (or something like that). We make it to the next exit, and pull over. We are trying to find a way home that doesn't involve the interstate. A young man, probably around Steven's age, pulled behind us, and asked if we needed some help. Les told him what was going on. He looked at the tire, and he wiggled the tire. He discovered that the bolt were loose. My tire was coming off. Thank God, he came along. I couldn't image what would have happened if my tire would have come off while driving. He was a God send.

I know that  I tightened those bolt as tight as I could get them. But he said that if they were stripped they would sometime go on and think they are tightened, and they come loose. So I have to keep an eye on them to see if that is the case. I do have to admit, I may have not gotten them tightened enough. Didn't get his name, but not enough Thanks could go to him. Like I said, I have no clue what would have happened if my tire would have come off while driving., but I don't think it would have been good.

We turn back and end up going to Asheville, and have a great time. We come home and then I go to bed to get sleep for my work that night. Now, I check them before I get in the car to leave to make sure they are tight. Until I find out whether or not it was my error or the bolts are just stripped.

--Rue.