One Beach, One Tire and One Exhausted Family

We left the condo at 9am this morning and headed south to Vero Beach. We met my Aunt Susan (she is 9 years older than me to the day) who is a professional dog trainer. You can visit her website here.

We had lunch at a great little local restaurant and then headed over to the beach for a few hours. The water was exceptionally clear and the kids enjoyed swimming in the ocean for awhile.

Kayla had the day off so she was able to go with us. We decided to let her drive back to Orlando so that I could get a quick catnap before the long drive home. On the turnpike one of our tires suddenly blew out. I don't mean a little flat going on, but an entire blowout - the tire was completely shredded. Fortunately Kayla was able to guide it over to the shoulder (I was sleeping, but came awake VERY quickly).

I started assessing the damage and groaning about how long changing a Suburban tire was going to take when out of the blue a "rescue" vehicle pulls up and offers to help. I have no idea how this guy got there so fast and none of us really saw him pull up, but obviously God had it all worked out! Here's another catch - I found out that we had no jack!! Our jack had been jacked! We had no idea how blessed we were that this fellow showed up when he did. In about thirty minutes our tire was changed and we were back on the road.

When we arrived back in Orlando, we decided not to take a chance driving without a spare so we found a Wal Mart at the very exit we were at. It was past seven and the lady said they were not taking any more customers for the day. When she found out that we were driving to Missouri, she talked to one of the mechanic guys and they said they would work us in. Two and a half hours and four new tires later, we headed back to drop Kayla off at her apartment.

It was sad to leave her, but we had a great time seeing her. You can read more about Melissa's thoughts here. I really think Kayla is excited to be in Florida, and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if she decided to stay and go to school full time in Orlando. She has some exciting thoughts in mind and when the time is right I will be able to share more on this blog.

We hit the road at 10pm - exhausted but ready to return home.

Next blog entry - the return trip!