Simply Belle

Last Wednesday, we fetched Tepsie at the airport. We drove the van to Phoenix the second time since the last tire-blow-out episode. I insisted that we drive the other car because I didn’t feel safe in the van after the last incident but my husband thought that the truck was too cramped for us four, so was Lexie’s car. Therefore, we had no other choice but to drive the van.

I was praying hard that nothing would happen on our drive to and from Phoenix. My husband was driving cautiously a little below the speed limit. Fortunately, we made it to the Valley safe and unharmed. We deliberately drove to the airport half an hour late for Tepsie’s scheduled arrival so we didn’t have to wait long for her. It turned out that the plane arrived half an hour early so she waited in the baggage claim area for some time, worried that something bad might have happened on us.

When she saw Lexie and me coming, she was so happy and excited.

From the airport, we went to order some food for Tepsie at Best of Hongkong Dining in Phoenix. She was insanely hungry!

Then we proceeded home. We were going downhill on Beeline Highway driving at a speed below the speed limit, and all three of us tuned in to music, when I heard a big thump. Oh my, I couldn’t believe it was happening again. We had another tire blowout and this time it was the front tire. I was terrified and in disbelief! Our van started careening from side to side. My husband yelled, “Hang on! Hang on! There was a big drop off to our left, I thought for a moment, we would end up down the ravine, but my husband managed to maneuver the vehicle to the shoulder. And lucky, there weren’t any cars close to us when this happened or there could have been a collision.

The three of us; S, Tepsie, and me came out of the vehicle and stood dumbfounded at the sight of the vehicle. “This is not supposed to happen again,” I remarked. We just had a tire blowout three weeks ago. Were the tires installed in our van defective? Something is wrong. At that instant, my husband thought of suing the company. Hey, my whole family could have been killed, why not?

My husband started changing the tire with lots of help from Tepsie, while I was flagging some kind of colorful cloth to caution the motorists to slow down. Our car barely fit the shoulder of the highway. It did the trick! Most motorists got the message and moved to the left lane to give us more room. Suddenly, a guy driving a slow moving van stopped and offered help. Although we already got everything under control, we accepted his offer and let him help us. He hauled the wrecked tire into the back of our vehicle. Once he noticed that he was not needed anymore, he got in his car and continued on his journey. We thanked him for his act of kindness.

The following day, we brought the van to the dealer, and demanded a set of upgraded tires from a different brand. They didn’t give us a hard time and agreed to our wishes as if they knew what was going on. We also asked that we are compensated for the damages our van sustained. Unfortunately, this will take a little time and will require heaps of paperwork.

Fortunately, our four tires are brand new again; unfortunately, I have to drive the van around town in such an embarrassing condition for who knows how long. People will probably think that I am some kind of reckless driver. Yesterday, I showed the damages to a friend of mine at work. She was shocked to see it! I explained to her what happened. She suggested that I look the cooper tire up on the internet because she thought that there might be a lawsuit against them. Brilliant idea!

I didn’t realize there were lawsuits after lawsuits against Cooper Tires. http://www.onlinelawyersource.com/cooper_tires/problems.html

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Yesterday, a friend of mine and her husband met us at a restaurant in the valley for a Mother’s day lunch. There were five of us: me, my husband, A, my friend, and her husband. The food was great! We banqueted on steamed crabs, raw and cooked oysters, clams, mussels, yummy duck, lechon, sushi, fish, barbeque pork, chinese dumplings, and many more. I could only eat so much. I didn’t even eat rice. I was stuffed! My husband had his fill.

After lunch, we went on our separate ways. My friend went to Costco, while my daughter and I went shopping in the mall. My husband stayed in his usual favorite place..the bookstore. I purchased a cute blouse for myself and my daughter bought two cute summer blouses. Then we headed home.

We were maintaining a speed of 67 miles an hour on an uphill grade when we suddenly heard a big blow, immediately followed by the thumping and banging noises. We were within several miles from our town. My husband said, “hold on! hold on!” while he tensely tried to hold firmly on the steering wheel. I didn’t know what was happening. The car was shaking so bad, accompanied by a pounding noise. I was scared! We never experienced something like this before. I looked back and saw a woman pull over to the side. I saw pieces of tires flying all over. I looked over to the other side of the road and saw a big drop off though there was a railing to protect us. Eventually, the vehicle started slowing down and my husband was able to begin to apply the brakes and quickly pulled over on the shoulder. My husband warned us to never slam the brakes when a blow out happens so we will not lose control of vehicle and cause it to swerve all over the road. Wait until you regain control of the vehicle, then you can start applying brakes. He also cautioned not to panic. Also, it is best to maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you.

We got out and saw the tire totally ripped off. The wheel’s well was broken, too. We were all shaken! We started unloading the back of our vehicle to search for the tools for changing tire. Since we bought this vehicle nine years ago, we have never used the jack, the tire arn, etc. It tooks us a while to figure out how to unhook the doughnut spare tire. My husband tried poking in every hole he could find with the tire arn and eventually found the right one and unravelled the spare tire.

First, we put rocks behind each wheel to stabilize our vehicle. Next, we loosened all the knots to the tire before raising the jack. Some people would apply the jack first before loosening the knots. Not a good idea because if you lift the jack up, the wheels will be hanging in the air, then when you try to loosen the knots, the wheel spins or the jack could shift off while loosening the knots and the vehicle could crash to the ground and might even hit somebody.

Suddenly, I saw another vehicle pulled over behind us. They were my friends. They passed us on the highway and was unable to stop so they looked for a safe place to turn around a few miles away and came to the rescue. It felt good seeing them. Earlier, I was hoping that they would see us and somehow they read my mind. He helped my husband finish installing the tire.

We drove slowly home while my friend kept a good distance behind us to make sure we were okay. We noticed that there were three other vehicles which also experienced a blow out right about in the same area. I wondered why. We stopped on one of the vehicles and offered help. A guy driving a motorcyle who also cared to stop thought that it might have been caused by the heat outside making the tire swell and blow out. It could also be that the tire was defective.

What a Mother’s day experience! Hope you know what to do when faced with this situation.

Note: our four tires have a lot of thread left.

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