Car Trouble

Almost a year ago, I noticed that the driver's side front tire on my car was going flat, so I took it in to the repair shop. I thought it would be no big thing--a nail or something like that. It turned out that the wheel itself was cracked, but they tried re-sealing it and hoped that that would work. For a couple of months, it did. In fact, it worked for so long that I completely forgot about the problem until the next time I took it in for a low tire that I thought was no big deal. Well, they kept re-sealing it and it had to be done more and more often, so it became pretty apparent that this was not working.

I took my car in for a tune-up last month at the dealer's and they thought that a different solution might work. They tried welding it. Didn't work. So, we finally gave in and bought new rims for all four tires (they don't make that kind anymore and we couldn't find one at the dump, so we had to replace all four.) Fortunately, and we were able to shop around and it only ended up costing about $350.

The very next day, we started to drive down to SLC so that Petra could pick up her new braces. Along about Malad, going 75MPH, the engine just stopped. We coasted to the side of the road and Dusty tried to figure out what was wrong. He couldn't, so we called a tow truck from Pocatello, and waited for an hour and a half for it to arrive. I was feeling pretty anxious about my car, and uncomfortable sitting on the side of the road, but I found a pack of cards in my purse and we started playing rummy and that made the time go faster. They got the car loaded up and the four of us rode back to Poci in the "Row Truck". It was pretty exciting for the girls. They had to sit on Dusty's and my laps, as there were only three seats, and we were high above most of the other cars. Dusty's mother and grandmother heroically met us at the repair shop and took us to lunch while we waited for the verdict.

Broken timing belt. Ouch. Fortunately, when it snapped, it didn't damage anything else. But still! It's just annoying to have something you just spent so much money on break again, especially since the two weren't in any way connected, so there was no chance that the one problem caused the other.

Alice Marie drove us back home, and we set out for SLC again in the van. Luckily, we were able to get another braced appt. for Pet the next day (which my Mom took her to [thanks!]) and Dusty and I were still able to take our little trip to Lagoon, which was a total blast.