TIREd... (Working Title: Rescued By Indiana Jones)

So I woke up with a bunch of stuff to do this morning, before heading out to LOL. I managed to get most of it done, and get on the road without being (too) late.
I had also planned for the Windshield Guy to meet us in Fairmont to replace my windshield while we were at LOL.
They are doing construction near us, and the Stop/Slow guy lets a cement truck go right in front of me. It's 50mph on that road, but the cement truck didn't go over 20mph the whole way to Easton Hill.
At the light, I was able to blow past him, and quickly get on the interstate.
The sun was shining, we were on time, and I was prepared.
Enter the hand of god.
Right before the Goshen Road exit, the driver's side tire began jack-hammering. I slowed it down to 60, then 30, but it still jack-hammered, so I pulled off and called Ron.

A little back story: On Monday, Ron had stopped to put air in one of the tires, but then decided not to.
I didn't know if that situation had anything to do with this.

I asked him in a half-panicked tone, "Could your not putting air in the tire have anything to do with the tire being flat now?"
The call was suddenly dropped.
I called him back and asked jokingly, "Did you hang up on me?"
"Yeah, I did." he replied.
I was so stunned- stunned- that he would hang up on his wife, who was stranded on the interstate with four children, that I hung up right away.
(Can you almost hear me thinking, "I'm telling Maggie you hung up on me!" ?)
And so, mascara running like Tammy Faye's, I called Maggie.
She was amazing. She made me laugh, and told me she could come get the kids, if I needed her to. But I decided the last thing they needed at LOL today was four more kids with nothing to do.
So I cleaned up my face, called AAA, and they sent a truck out to put air in my tire.
One of the guys in the truck was Bill.


Here is Bill (right), age 15, goofing off with friends.


Bill dressed as Indiana Jones.

These pics were taken in 1984, while we were getting ready to go out for a night of mischief trick-or-treating.
He is now married with four daughters, aged 22 years down to 3 years.
When Indie Bill attempted to inflate the tire, the valve-thingie didn't fit the stem on my tire. It's apparently a specialty thing. So he went back to the garage to get another valve-thingie.
While he was gone, the Windshield Guy called to confirm our plans. I told him about my trouble, and he decided to stay in Morgantown and see if he could replace it here.
Bill arrived with the new valve-thingie and the tire just would not pump up. After driving forward about a foot, we saw why.



So, we had to tow it. (AWD Toyota Siennas come with run-flats, which means they do not look flat when they really are. Also, there is no spare.)




Bill tried to hook up the van, but there was something wrong, and it couldn't be towed the normal way.



Here the kids are, sitting on the guard rail, watching the Tow Fail.

I called Ron back and he agreed to come out and help haul kids, since the tow truck can only hold two extra people.

Another tow truck came, and they loaded up the van, and towed it to the place where I got four new tires.




The Windshield Guy (remember him?) met us at the tire place, and then followed us out to the house, where he and his son replaced my cracked windshield.




While it was a stressful day spent mostly on the side of the road, some amazing things happened:
I got to lean against the van in the warm sun and read my book.
I got to catch up with an old friend.
Someone actually complimented my I'm In A Van song, from a few posts back.
The kids dug out their solar cookers (remember those?) and roasted marshmallow Peeps in them. (That, along with all the roadside excitement, made for one hell of a homeschooling day.)