Ok first off I have to whine about the weather. Yes I know I’m in Michigan and should be used to the cold but I’m not and every winter it seems to bug me more and more. Today it was like minus 4 and tomorrow is supposed to be even colder

My van didn’t want to start because it was so cold. But thankfully after some prayer and several key turnovers it started. Even after it running for quite awhile (15 minutes) it still felt cold. It was just one of those days that if you were outside you couldn’t take a deep breath because it hurt. Yeah one of those frigid days.

There’s one other thing Michigan is good for beside the frigid temperatures – potholes. Everywhere I have been in Michigan has really bad ones. And of course leave it to me to find the really bad ones down here. Or should I say really bad one because that’s all it took. As soon as the van hit it I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty. Even Caleb noticed how hard we hit.

And it took about 2 minutes for the tire to go flat. I drove to the nearest business and pulled in, parked and called B to let her know that I was stranded and couldn’t get to her house. She came and got us & then I dropped her off at work.

When B’s husband got home from work tonight him and I headed to where my van was. What should have been a somewhat ‘quick’ fix turned into several hours (remember the beginning of this post and how COLD it is? Yeah not exactly nice having to spend hours out in it!!!! I’m still trying to warm up!). Oh and get this…that lovely pothole? Not only did it flatten 1 tire but it flattened 2! UNFREAKING BELIEVABLE! 2 flippin tires flat.

And of course getting the spare (which is oh so NOT convenientaly located underneath the van) tire off (oh which happens to be a full size tire which was a blessing!) wasn’t something quick. It took forever. I felt so bad for S as he had to lay on the ground (thankfully I had an old coat in there he could lay on) to get that thing off there. I don’t know for sure how long it took for him to get that spare off there but it had to of been a good hour! It was absolutely crazy. As more time wore on and I got colder & colder the worse I felt for S! Poor guy worked all day long and then came home to find out that in sub zero weather he’d be having to deal with a flat tire that turned into 2 flats.

Ok so then finally things get on a roll – spare tire off, van jacked up, old tire off, go to put spare on only to have the jack fall! My question is why on earth do they make such small jacks for such big things? So after some time S finally was able to get jack out from under van and get it jacked back up and get the tire put on.

Woo Hoo 1 down 1 to go. We decided to give fix a flat a try for the 2nd tire. That would at least buy us enough time to get to the gas station to get some aire in it. Yeah of course that couldn’t be simple either! 3 bottles of fix a flat later and nothing. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Only other option was get it to the gas station & put air in it. Do you think that worked? Well of course not! I mean that would have been too easy. Last resort? Very carefully and very SLOWLY drive it to B and S’s house.

Finally we pulled into B & S’s house right around 10pm! It was about 3 hours we were out in that cold. Maybe a little less. Maybe like 2 1/2 but it doesn’t matter. It sucked no matter how you look at it. I literally just ate dinner and sat down to wrap up in a blanket about 10 minutes ago! I’m not sure how I ate or am typing because I still can’t stop shivering. I’m not sure that my body will ever unthaw or that I’ll ever warm back up. Poor S he worked all day, spent several hours in frigid weather, got home, ate and went to bed. I feel like a big ole burden

And of course there’s still a problem – I need a new tire and a rim. That’s what makes me feel even worse about the whole dang situation. S did all that, spent all that time out there for what? The situation wasn’t resolved so I feel like he wasted his time.

I wish all the roads and potholes would be fixed because this is just ridiculous that this happened all because of hitting a dang pothole! UGH.