We do a lot of things a little different out in farm country don’t we? It’s been a few months since I had that thought, but today it was top of mind. I had a flat tire on the way home from the Krone Big X Launch in Florida. The rental car I was driving was a Prius and let me just say “spare tire” in the city and “spare tire” in Farm Country don’t mean the same thing.
I left for the airport a few hours early because I went to bed with a feeling there would be traffic. I had a 2 hour 30 minute drive to the Orlando airport to catch my flight home. Came out to my car at 7 a.m. and noticed a tire was flat. Way flat. I thought through the options in my head and like any farmer would do, I dug out the Cracker Jack my vehicle was equipped with and I jacked up the car. Sadly, the jack was too chinsy to lift the car high enough to remove the tire because of how flat it was. At home, I always have a reliable jack and a four-way in my car.
I called Avis Road Side Assistance and they sent a guy out to help me. Once he arrived he swapped the flat tire for my “spare” in about five minutes. I questioned him about the “spare tire” because it looked like a motorcycle tire. He said it was called a mini spare and that I shouldn’t drive it more than 50 MPH. At home, we have reliable spare tires for each of our vehicles because where we live in Nevada if I got a spare tire while on the road it could easily be 2 hours before I could get to the next town or gas station to fix it.
In a rush I thanked him and hurried to get on the road. Time was of the essence. Once on the interstate I set my cruise on 50 MPH. (For the first time in my life.) Then I started thinking through the options. I had 154 miles between me and the airport with only 2 hours and 20 minutes to do it at a top speed of 50 MPH. I’m no genius but that math doesn’t work. Plus, I was worried about driving on the donut. So I decided if I was going to make it home in time for dinner with friends tonight I needed a new car. [Insert minor meltdown on the phone with my husband. Who in their right mind doesn’t have a true spare tire?]
I started calling Avis locations between me and the airport because they will happily swap a down car. I called three locations, and each one told me they had no cars available to swap. One sweet lady gave me the number for a fourth location. They didn’t have a car available either but the lady felt bad for me so she talked her husband (the owner) into letting me swap out for a car they hadn’t cleaned since its last rental. At this point I didn’t care one bit and thought to myself ‘Lady, I live on a farm. You should see my car at home.’ So the new car and I went 85 MPH all the way to the airport and got to the security line at 11. By the grace of God and a good old airport sprint I made it onto my plane before it left at 11:20.
Bottom line: I love donuts, but for now I’ll stick to the kind that are iced with chocolate and filled with custard.
