My Pendleton Adventure

I can't believe I forgot to tell you guys about this. So Hayley's last days in Oregon were those of Mother's Day weekend. She was supposed to catch a plane out of Portland on Monday, but first she wanted to go back to Pendleton to see her parents before she left (naturally). Her Dad is the president of Blue Mountain Community College which is in Pendleton, and they had a rodeo that weekend. He told Hayley that she should bring me along when she comes back, and so she tossed the idea at me. Of course I went, I mean, she was leaving soon for 2 months (tear), and there was a rodeo! It wasn't a question at that point. Anyways, she left Thursday, and then I was going to drive over Friday night after class.

A little bit of background. My car hasn't passed DEQ, and is 230,000 miles old, so I didn't want to take it 350 miles to Pendleton and back. Mom has a new car, kept her old Accord ('95 I believe), so I decided to take it over there. Much more reliable, and much less to worry about. She went and got it all checked out, gassed it up and everything before I came up, so it was ready for the trip. Friday night, I drove up to Portland, switched cars, and headed off to Pendleton.

The plan was to come back Sunday morning for Mother's Day, drop Hayley off at her aunt's, who would then drive her to the airport on Monday, and head to my grandma's house to meet up with the family. I made it out to Pendleton at about 12:15am after listening to about 6 PTI (Pardon the Interuption, an ESPN sports banter show) podcasts on my iPod on the way over. It was an easy drive. We hung out on Saturday, went to the rodeo that night, said goodbye to the Turner's and then headed out Sunday morning around 10:00am.

First, I forgot my cell phone, and Hay's mom called her while we were pretty much still in town, so we went back for that. A bad start. So we were driving along and stopped at a rest stop for a minute. It was hot, so Hay sat in the car so I could keep it running. My car wouldn't have started back up for a while, so I wanted to be safe. We get back on the road, and the car feels like it's shaking a little. The kind of shaking that made me think we had something stuck in the tire. So I pulled into the next gas station and checked the tires. I ran my hands along all of them, and couldn't feel anything, but the rear driver's side tire looked almost out of alignment. I tried giving it a little kick to see if it was loose, it wasn't, so I decided if it had worked itself out of alignment, it would have to work itself back in.

We got back on the road, and I called Mom to see if the car had done this before. While she was saying no it hadn't, we feel a big bump and hear a bang, all the signs of a blowout. I pull over and see what's going on. I am thinking the tire blew out, and it was Mother's Day, so where the hell are we going to get a tow truck? I was still on the phone with my mom when I went to the back of the car, looked at the rear driver's side tire, and saw the radial cords busting through the rubber of the tire. What the hell is that? I thought we ran something over at first, like a string of steel wires or something, but realized upon further inspection, that actually we had lost a chunk of tire. A strip about 4" x 12" had come off, and was laying in the highway about 10 yards back.

My mom called AAA, signed up, and sent a tow truck out to us. They called me and said they'd be an hour and a half. I didn't want to wait that long, so Hay and I decided we were going to try and change the tire. Neither of us had done it before, but who does that ever stop? We bust out the spare and the tire iron...where's the jack? We were parked on a slope that (I thought) would keep the car elevated when we took off one tire. So I take off the lugnuts, and Hay tries to wiggle it free while I hold the wheel well to make sure it doesn't fall on her. She can't get it, so we switch positions. When I wiggle it free, the car does not stay elevated, and comes down, pinching Hay's fingers between the wheel well and the tire. We kind of panic, but I manage to lift the car up for her to get her hand out. She's was fine, don't worry.

So the car is sitting on its axel, and we're stuck without a jack. The only way to do it is to lift the car off the ground and shove the donut on there. I lift while she puts the tire on, and I ask if I'm close. She says not at all. So I'm thinking shit, this car is heavy (umm, duh?). I put my back to the car, the wheel well between my legs, and pretty much half power clean it. After a lot of lifting and some muscle fatigue (obviously, it's a freakin' car), we get the donut on there. Screw the lugnuts in and are done.

AAA calls, and says they're 10 minutes away, so we wait. He shows up, says we have it under control, and tells us not to go over 50 mph. Thanks buddy. So we get back in and head out.

Long story short (cause this is the boring part), we're driving with the hazard lights on going 48 mph down the highway for another 2 hours. I drop her off, get to my grandma's, get the car home, and take my Acura back down to Eugene. Happy Mother's Day!

It was a hell of a trip, and I felt I had to share it with you all. That's my only encounter with a tire problem, let alone a chunk coming off of one. You got any good road tripping/tire blowout/driving stories? Post 'em!