A tale of two tires

So you got the story on my Krystal expedition in the midst of a right-rear tire blowout.......

Well, that was 4 days ago and, No....I hadn't yet gotten my tire replaced. In all the research I've been doing, I've learned that tires for a gas-guzzling SUV are not cheap. $180 each. Craziness. One of the places I searched on the web did not have prices listed on their site, so I decided I would run by there and see them in person and get an estimate. Hoffman, with an H, Tires. Very nice people. I walked in and told him that I had a blowout, that I was driving on my spare and that I needed an estimate on four new tires.

He walked out with me to take a look at my car and told me that I didn't need four tires. I only needed three. My spare is a full-size spare....that is identical to the other tires. He said they can put my spare onto one of the front wheels and then take the best of the other three and make that my new spare. Ok....I like the guy already.

Done. We make an appointment for Thursday morning 8 am....Then he makes a ridiculous comment. "Don't run over anything while you're driving. Remember, you're driving on your spare." Yes Sir!!!

And off I go. Onto Jonesboro to meet a couple of gals for lunch. I'm listening to my music....lost in my thoughts. I turn onto Tara Blvd from 54. And BAM!!!!!

What was that? You must be kidding me. I didn't, did I?

I did. I ran over something and there was this crazy knocking sound coming from the left-rear of my truck. And this was not 15 minutes after Mr. Hoffman himself advised that I not run over anything. This must just be my day. I'm looking in my side-view mirror trying to see if there is any tread flying up, but I can't see anything, but this awful noise is still coming from the back of the car. I pull into the children's building parking lot and assess the damage. Ok....no tread flying off. Good. But there is a piece of metal stuck in my tire. Not good.

I know what all of you are thinking. I can hear you yelling at your computer now........'Don't pull it out!!!!' Ok....I thought about that myself, but decided not to listen to the little voice in my head. I pulled it out. This wonderful SSSHHHHHHHHHH sound comes from the tire. Fabulous. Idiot, jpv.

Well, since I'm at the church to meet friends for lunch, I head over to the office. I found Chip and asked him to take a look at it, but he couldn't find anything wrong with the tire. And honestly, it wasn't too terribly flat. Just low. Knowing that Mr. Hoffman was going to the Warehouse during his lunch break to pick up my new tires, I made my way back to his shop. He stood up when he saw me, looked out at my truck and said......"You have a flat tire." Uh.....yep!

I told him he never should have admonished me to not run over anything. I pulled out of the shop 45 minutes later with my spare back under the truck and with two new tires replacing my two rear blown-out ones. I will return in the morning to get the third new tire put on and the spare put back on. They are going to see if they can patch the one I biffed up today before they decide which tire actually becomes my spare.

So, there you have it. A tale of two tires. One.....went flat. Then shredded on Hwy 85. The other......seemingly met its Maker in the form of a road hazard on Hwy 19/41. Then may get new life at the hands of the techs at Hoffman Tire.