It started with a band staying the night at our house and ended with a blown out tire on the interstate. That’s how my last 24 hours have played out. Two Christmases ago I wrote about driving with my brother to return a guitar to a guy in a band. The guitar got left in the club they had played at in Little Rock and it wasn’t discovered missing until they were at home in Texas. My brother saw an opportunity to help out this band that he liked and so he offered to pick up the guitar and drive it half way.
Well this same band (their name is Resident Hero) is back on tour and were driving from Mississippi to a town in northern Arkansas to play a show. Since they had to drive on I-40 to get there, my brother saw another opportunity to help them out and so he offered up our house for the night. They took him up on it and while I have no idea what they might have actually thought of the house or their sleeping accomidations, it beats sleeping in a smelly van right? Plus I helped my brother ended up making breakfast for them in the morning and one guy did his laundry. I didn’t really talk or hang out with them but they seemed pretty cool and I think they were grateful to get out of their van and stay in a house, even if it was only for one night.
The town they played in is about a 2 1/2-3 hour drive from our house and I told my brother I would go with him so he wouldn’t have to do the drive alone. We got there and the show was pretty good and I was especially happy that they were one of the openers, so they were done by 9:30. We listed to a lot of the next set and then talked to the lead singer for a little bit and headed out around 10:30.
About 14 miles outside of our town there’s a fast thumping sound and smoke coming from the front of the car. Keep in mind this is a rental my brother had to get because of the car wrecks he was in last week. We pull over and wouldn’t you know the front passenger side tire is not only flat, but has exploded leaving a 2 inch gash in the tire. And there’s some kind of liquid leaking out from the tire.
We pull out the spare and my brother starts fiddling with the jack but neither one of us have actually had to change a tire. I’ve seen it done but never had to do it myself. Here it is, 1:00 in the morning. We are on I-40 heading east about 14 miles from our town. I don’t know what night time looks like where you live but down here in Arkansas it’s complete and total darkness. You can barely see your hand in front of your face so we were using our cell phones as flashlights. And I should say that we ended up only being 14 miles away from home but we really didn’t know exactly where we were.
My brother was working on getting the jack on the car but it wasn’t looking promising at first. So I found a road service number and gave them a call. Their estimated time for arrival was sometime in the next 75 minutes. Oh goodie. By the time I finally got off the phone with them, my brother had gotten the jack on securely so I loosened the bolts. Once the bolts were off, I called the road service people and canceled the service keeping my fingers crossed we would be able to get the spare on and not have to call them again. It took us about an hour (maybe a little more) to get the tire changed. I’m just glad we didn’t have to wait an additional 75 minutes.
I have no idea if it’s really on the way it’s supposed to be. I would assume so since it didn’t fall off or explode but who knows. It’s now 3:30 in the morning and I’m exhausted. As I go to sleep I’m going to ferventally wish tomorrow will be a complete and total bore.
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