Saturday we decided to take a road trip to Carlyle Lake. No reason other than to get out of the house. We’ve done this before during the virus shutdown. We drove to Augusta a few weeks ago. It's a good way to clear your mind.
I said to Mimi, “Lets take a road trip today.”
“Okay, where do you want to go?”
“I don’t care, just pick somewhere.”
We ended up choosing Carlyle Lake. We took our newest car a 2019 Kia Niro. It gets great gas mileage and it’s a comfortable ride. The ride was smooth until we blew a tire on Illinois 64 East.. At first it sounded like those warning strips, the washboard style but double the noise. I looked out the window and saw that I wasn’t driving on them. That’s when we realized we had a flat, well really a blowout.
Most new cars don’t come with a spare tire. They have all the bells and whistles, but no spare and no place to store one. They have that goop that you squirt in the tire but it’s messy and it’s unlikely to work on a blowout.
I pulled over to the side of the road and rolled down to park under the viaduct then called Kia 24 hour Emergency Road service. We were blindly following the GPS and didn’t know the exact highway we were on, so Mimi walked down to the sign. That’s when we knew it was Illinois 64 East, but the lady on the phone couldn’t find it. She kept asking if this was near Chicago. We told her no, we were only 15 minutes from St. Louis. I then walked down to the nearest exit, so now I knew exit 12 was the Belleville/Collinsville route 159. This helped and the lady and she was then able to contact a towing company.
The towing guy called and told us it would be about 20 minutes, then ask us if we had a ride. I said no, but we could get one if we needed to. The tow truck driver said he wasn’t allowed to take any riders because of Covid 19. Really, so standing on a heavily traveled highway is safer than riding in a truck due to the risk of Coranavirus?
I called the Kia dealer and found out the service department was closed on weekends, so we would have to wait until Monday to get the car.
We called our son, Pat and told him our predicament, he or Jen would come by and pick us up. Great news. We sat for awhile waiting for the tow truck as cars flew by at 90 miles an hour.
I said, “Hey, at least we’re not bored.”
Mimi looked over, “Really, why am I sweating?”
“So much fun, right?
“Stop talking now.”
The truck showed up and loaded up the car. The driver asked us if we had someone coming to pick us up. I told him yes, she was on the way. He the drove off to drop our car at the Kia dealer in O’Fallon Illinois. We stood under the viaduct then started to walk to the exit when Jen showed up and ended our crazy road trip. Do you have a spare tire? “Just Asking...?”
I said to Mimi, “Lets take a road trip today.”
“Okay, where do you want to go?”
“I don’t care, just pick somewhere.”
We ended up choosing Carlyle Lake. We took our newest car a 2019 Kia Niro. It gets great gas mileage and it’s a comfortable ride. The ride was smooth until we blew a tire on Illinois 64 East.. At first it sounded like those warning strips, the washboard style but double the noise. I looked out the window and saw that I wasn’t driving on them. That’s when we realized we had a flat, well really a blowout.
Most new cars don’t come with a spare tire. They have all the bells and whistles, but no spare and no place to store one. They have that goop that you squirt in the tire but it’s messy and it’s unlikely to work on a blowout.
I pulled over to the side of the road and rolled down to park under the viaduct then called Kia 24 hour Emergency Road service. We were blindly following the GPS and didn’t know the exact highway we were on, so Mimi walked down to the sign. That’s when we knew it was Illinois 64 East, but the lady on the phone couldn’t find it. She kept asking if this was near Chicago. We told her no, we were only 15 minutes from St. Louis. I then walked down to the nearest exit, so now I knew exit 12 was the Belleville/Collinsville route 159. This helped and the lady and she was then able to contact a towing company.
The towing guy called and told us it would be about 20 minutes, then ask us if we had a ride. I said no, but we could get one if we needed to. The tow truck driver said he wasn’t allowed to take any riders because of Covid 19. Really, so standing on a heavily traveled highway is safer than riding in a truck due to the risk of Coranavirus?
I called the Kia dealer and found out the service department was closed on weekends, so we would have to wait until Monday to get the car.
We called our son, Pat and told him our predicament, he or Jen would come by and pick us up. Great news. We sat for awhile waiting for the tow truck as cars flew by at 90 miles an hour.
I said, “Hey, at least we’re not bored.”
Mimi looked over, “Really, why am I sweating?”
“So much fun, right?
“Stop talking now.”
The truck showed up and loaded up the car. The driver asked us if we had someone coming to pick us up. I told him yes, she was on the way. He the drove off to drop our car at the Kia dealer in O’Fallon Illinois. We stood under the viaduct then started to walk to the exit when Jen showed up and ended our crazy road trip. Do you have a spare tire? “Just Asking...?”
