Only 208 miles today but we’re not complaining. We took black and grey roads to avoid Birmingham Alabama, it was a very cool drive through some really rich areas, but we weren’t getting very far, so we got on the freeway to avoid Tuscaloosa and the trucks weren’t bugging us and traffic was mellow so we decided to stay on awhile, just as we were pulling in a rest area for lunch, the steering started bumping. It’s pretty hard to figure out whats wrong when you have two cars tied together, so we disconnected in the rest area, what a hot hassle, so we could narrow it down, Lei didn’t even make it back on the freeway before pulling off in the acceleration lane, I guess towing my truck made the bumping mellow, she said she couldn’t steer. Well the front tire was seperating, our cell phone don’t dial out, well it can call the cell I had working for Brian, but that wouldn’t have helped. Lei thought the operator could dial Triple A for us….great idea! Well sorta, she (T-Mobile operator) called the Tuscaloosa police department, who after listening to my story again, connected me to the State Troopers, who listened to my story, at first they didn’t think they could help, but then they realized we had the number to Triple A, but that we just couldn’t dial it, so they connected us to Triple A who didn’t need to hear our story they just needed to know where we were and what did we need. They sent a tow truck right out. Forty minutes later, he towed us to the first off ramp at Boligee, AL. And right at the exit was an old used tire store! It was just after 5:00pm but they were still open and were so happy to see us, and they had our size tire! The tow only cost us $12 and the tire was $55…So we’re back on the road. The blessing being we felt the bulge in the tire before the blowout!

P. S. For those following along, we spent the night in Meridian, Mississippi

 

– We have pinned this post on our 2008 Road Trip Map LINK