Finally, it's time for our annual family vacation! I look forward to this week every year. A lot of my dad's side of the family heads down to New Smyrna Beach, FL; this year there were 52 of us (which is actually on the low side; we've had almost 70 before). It is so much fun! Even though we are fortunate enough to see one another pretty often, we all look forward to this time to get away together. Ryan and I were also excited because we actually headed down to Tampa first because my sorority "little sister" was getting married on Saturday. What perfect timing!
After having a rough drive back from Lakeland, FL in May, Ryan and I decided we would try driving through the night in hopes that the girls would sleep most of the way. So, we left just after midnight on Friday morning. Mia was fast asleep before we even left the neighborhood. Lily stayed awake for just under an hour. She was pretty quite, but I think she really enjoyed looking at all the lights as we drove through downtown and down the interstate. She fell asleep, Ryan put on his iPod earbuds, and I went to sleep.
Everything was going great...until about 3:45 AM. We were about 7 miles north of Valdosta on 75. All of a sudden our back right tire blew out! We were just driving along (I was actually awake talking to Ryan) when all of a sudden it blew to pieces. I don't think we drove over anything, it just blew. It made a really loud noise and the car started to pull. Thankfully, Ryan was able to get us safely over to the side of the road. Even though we only drove on it for a few seconds, it managed to do damage to the bumper and side of the car. We could see pieces of the tire all along the interstate. It was very scary.
Luckily, I am a member of AAA, so I called their emergency helpline. I tried stressing to the lady that we were stuck on the side of 75 with a (now wide-awake) 2 year old and an infant. She said since this was the third shift, she could not flag it as a priority emergency, but she would note it in hopes that would speed someone up. She said a tow truck would be there within an hour to help change our tire and make sure there was no other damage so we could continue driving. Thankfully, the tow truck driver called about 35 minutes later, I was able to tell him exactly where we were and he was able to get there about 10 minutes after that. Ryan had to practically unpack the trunk to get the spare out. They changed the tire, but then we had to take the blown tire with us, so Ryan had to figure out how to re-situate everything to accommodate it but he made it work.
We pulled over at the next stop to fill up with gas and make sure all the tires had enough air in them, but then we were back on the road. Lily, of course, woke up as soon as the tire blew and stayed awake the whole time we waited, the car was worked on and we got back on the road. She was such a little trooper though. We explained that the tire was broken and someone was coming to fix it. We told her how nice the man with the big truck was to help us fix the tire. We reassured her it would be quite for the rest of the drive and she could go back to sleep. Mia, amazingly enough, slept the entire time...a girl after my own heart!
I have to say, I think the Lord was protecting us the entire time. We stopped at the entrance of our neighborhood before we left and said a prayer asking for a safe drive down. Even with a blown tire and sitting stranded on the side of the interstate in the middle of the night, we made it safe and sound. We are very thankful that God protected us during what could have been a very dangerous situation.
So, that was the adventure that started our trip. Florida, Part 2 will tell you about our time in Tampa.
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