A Really Good Day

I said in the newsletter that I wanted to tell you about our Silver Dollar City trip but it was too long a story to put there, so here it is.

God loves me. This I surely know.

I had the best day ever, but let me start at the beginning, a few days ago.

I'd been having a lot of flat tires on my car. My husband had searched for new tires several times but he never could find a six ply tire that would fit and I had been stuck with four ply tires for quite a while, not good for a dirt road like ours. Once, he found a set of tires online that would work and they were a good price. He put them in the cart and before we could checkout they were gone. But we finally found some and got them ordered just after having to put a different tire on the front passenger side because the old one could no longer be fixed.

Still, he was convinced that the old tires had some life left in them. He wouldn't put them on for me when they arrived and I was very disappointed. It's different for a woman. I apologize if that sounds sexist but I think it holds true. My worst fear is being stranded along the roadside of 65 highway and having to figure out how to air up a tire with semi trucks whooshing by.

About the time the new tires arrived we were invited by a woman at my church to go to Silver Dollar City, a local theme park in Branson, on discounted day passes. We only had a week to use the passes and every available day was predicted to be storms or rain. We decided to go anyway. Her husband wanted to go but couldn't stay as long as we wanted to, so he was going to follow us down there and leave about four o'clock.

My daughter and I have an MTHFR gene mutation (very common) that keeps us from breaking down B vitamins. We take shots for it weekly (not so common.) This requires us to go all the way to Springfield on 65 Highway weekly. Tuesday was shot day and we decided to put off our shot for a few days to go to Silver Dollar City.

When the tires arrived I asked my husband if he was going to put them on before I had to drive a 70+ year old woman and two teenagers to Silver Dollar City and he said no, thinking the tires were still fine. We picked up our friend and waited anxiously for the heavy rain we knew could happen any moment. When she told me her husband would be following us I was relieved. My daughter and I check the tires every single time we get in or out of the car and I'm always thinking about the closest place to get a tire fixed. I could hear my friend talking with her husband on the phone and I could tell he was very protective of her. I really admired that about him, and as I said, it made me feel better knowing he would be behind us.

It's about an hour and half drive to Branson. We got to Ozark just fine and I turned onto 65 toward Branson instead of toward Springfield like I usually did each week and merged onto the highway. I heard a noise as I gained speed. I knew my husband had put on a different tire recently and it wasn't a worrisome noise so I assumed it was the newer tire with more tread than the rest of the tires making the noise. About a minute later we hear a pop and my friend said I blew a tire. As she spoke I felt the car becoming very difficult to steer and I pulled off to the side of the road.

My worst nightmare had just came true.

There was no fixing this tire like I had done before. I had just become semi-confident in my ability to air up a flat with the small, plug-in compressor in the trunk I hauled around everywhere. Before I could get my phone out my friend was talking to her husband who happened to be about ten minutes behind us. I called my husband and he told me to have our friends help to get the spare on and leave the car in a safe place, go to Silver Dollar City with them, and come back and get the car on the way back.

I did not like this idea.

My friend's husband arrived and he was ready to change a tire. He got the old tire off, no problem. Only we couldn't get the spare tire to release from under the car. After much searching we finally figured out how it was supposed to release. There's a small panel that comes off and reveals a rod that must be turned with a special tool. My car has its own tool box, I soon learned, full of all kinds of tools. But none of them fit the spare release. Our friends also had tools but none of them fit, either. The highway patrolman that stopped behind us didn't have anything that would work, either. I called my husband. He left work with a really big set of tools and came to help us.

After much searching, my husband finally gets a tool to work, even though it wasn't made to fit the situation and we get the spare to release. It's covered in an inch of dust. (Not an exaggeration.)

The highway patrolman said, "I take it you live on a dirt road?"

Oh, yeah, we do.

I'm super nervous about driving my car on a spare tire and so I convince my husband to take the car back to work with him and then he can take it on home later, I'll take his Jeep, and we'll be on our merry way. He gets in the car and merges onto the highway and then immediately he's back on the shoulder. It's flat. He tries to air it up but the bead is broken and it won't hold air. After a bit of deliberation from the adults we decide that he can have the car and the Jeep and we'll tag along with my friend and her husband the rest of the day and my husband can figure out this whole tire mess by himself and come pick us up at my friend's house later. (These are the times when it's great to be a woman and daily cooking and dishes don't seem so bad.)

We went to Silver Dollar City and it began raining on us just as we got on the parking lot tram. What had I agreed to? I didn't care what kind of rain we got into. I was happy because I didn't need to drive the rest of the day. I had this wonderful peacefulness the rest of the day, the kind that only comes when you know you have escaped disaster. The rain stopped and we had a mostly cloudy day that wasn't too hot. About the time my friend's husband needed to leave we saw huge rainclouds forming and we were glad it was time to go.

I kept thinking about the events of the day and how it could have been very different.

We were supposed to go to Springfield that day. We would have turned out on 65 going the other direction and had a blow out a few miles later. Just me and my daughter. My husband was at work at the time but he was only scheduled those hours for two days, Tuesday and Wednesday. Otherwise he would have been at home and it would have taken him much longer to get there. It's very unusual for him to have those hours. It's also very unusual for me to drive around with another adult. Very rare, actually. Out of all the days my worst fear could happen, it happened on a day when I had so much support. And you don't know how glad I was when the spare went flat. (Please don't tell my husband that.) Because I really didn't want to drive at all after that experience, especially not with passengers I was responsible for.

My husband drove home in the Jeep, got a tire that would work to get it home, and brought his Dad back with him to get the car. It took him hours but he got all four tires on and came and picked us up that evening. I asked him if it was okay for him to leave work like that and he said there was nothing to do at work that day. His partner was looking for something to do when he left. No one needed to cover for him or was angry that he needed to leave suddenly.

I felt very loved and cared for that day. I know that God was watching over me and protecting me. I was nearly in tears several times that day because of it. It reminded me of another time when God was watching me on the road. My daughter was little then and with me that day in her car seat. I left in the truck and saw my father-in-law leave right behind me. He drove a little slower than I did on the dirt road and later he asked me how I got around the tree branch. Up the hill on the highway a very heavy tree branch had fell across the road. It was so big he couldn't move it and had to turn around. I never saw any branch but it fell where I was driving no more than a minute and a half later. (We later came back and sawed up the branch for firewood.)

How many times have I been so close to disaster and didn't even know it?

It's a bit eerie to think about. But it also makes me feel very loved and thankful for His protection over me and my family. Some people would hear this story and say what a horrible day I had, but for me it was a great day spent with friends and family and good weather and a God who loves me and watches out for me.