We’re Home!

Peter and I returned to Austin just before our blogiversary (the 19th) and have been doing nothing but playing catch up ever since. Each day I feel like I accomplish a million things, then I look down at my to do list and I see a million more. I guess this means I’m an adult. Hopefully, it just means I’m busy.

The drive home from Chicago is one that we’ve done before (Can you believe that we bought our car exactly a year ago and have since put more than 20,000 miles on it?!), but this time Peter and I were both swearing that we will never do it again. A late night flight from  New York to Chicago the night before we left added a lot of exhaustion onto the trip. Then, on the second day of driving we got a a flat tire. It was a horrible experience, but we learned a lot from it.

We pulled past the Texas border, cheering because we knew we would be home soon–when all of a sudden our tire pressure light came on. After inflating the tires and then watching the light come back on, we suspected we had hit something. Sure enough a huge nail was lodged into our back tire. Peter wanted to drive the rest of the way of the way home, but I knew it would be a better idea for us to stop at the Honda dealership and get a replacement. Luckily, it was the middle of the day and we were sure we had all the time in the world. Only, when we got to the Honda Dealership the parts guys were telling us they didn’t have a tire that would fit our car. “Okay, no problem,” we thought, “we’ll just head over to the Discount Tire.” Before this trip I thought a tire was a tire and you could get them anywhere, but apparently our 2009 Honda Fit has a very rare sized tire and after spending hours searching for one, we were desperate and didn’t know what to do. We also learned that you’re only supposed to drive 60 miles on a spare, so Peter’s original idea to drive home was out of the picture. We were pulled over at a gas station using the GPS and my iphone to search for places that might have a replacement tire. Out of ideas, we went to Target and Peter bought a bottle of green goo called Slime that was supposed to fix our tire.

{via}

Right as he started getting out the original tire, it started pouring. The dogs and I stayed huddled in the car while Peter pulled out everything that was packed on top of the tire storage area. (I think he packed and unpacked the car 20 times that day.) The rain only added to his frustration and after a very long twenty minutes he knew the tire was destroyed beyond repair. We were out of options and somehow the afternoon had vanished and it was already 6:50 PM. We knew we weren’t going to make it home that day, so we called one of our fabulous friends and she and her boyfriend graciously let us stay at her house. In the next ten minutes we called every dealership in town and eventually located one that had a tire that could work.

The next day we arrived at the dealership, only to discover that the Slime had ruined the computer system in our car that measures the tire pressure, so it had to be replaced. A few hours later, we were finally on the road.

If and when we have to take another long journey, Peter and I will be buying another full tire before we go. Here are a few takeaways from our experience:

1.) Find out if you have a rare tire size before you go on a long car journey. If so, prepare accordingly.

2.) Don’t drive more than 60 miles on a spare.

3.) Slime destroyed the sensors in our car, use caution when using a product like this if you have pressure sensors in your tires. (It also voids the warranty on your tires, if you have one.)

4.) Good friends are hard to come by, but Peter and I are so lucky that we have some who will drop everything, go to dinner with us and drink wine and watch a movie, even on a work night. Thanks again, Caroline and Nick