Tuesday, August 22: Early evening. We left Old Mackinac Point Light to go back into town to find a bite to eat ... the road certainly seemed bumpy ... but then I remembered thinking that same thing as we were driving TO the lighthouse.
Bump. Bump. Bump. "Boy, this road SURE is bumpy!" I said to Emma. Emma: "OR, Grandma ... we have a flat tire." I replied, "But Emma ... these are FOUR BRAND NEW TIRES!" The entire reason I purchased tires a few months ahead of schedule was to prepare for this very scenario (so that it would NOT happen--the flat tire, that is).
The rear passenger tire was completely and totally F-L-A-T! Oh-oh! We had several problems!
(1) The newer Kia models (my Soul is a 2016) do not come with spare tires--there is no place to put them (so says the company). To clarify, they do not even have a stupid donut tire to throw on in case of emergency. They do, however, have a tire repair kit underneath the back trunk space.
(2) This tire looked like it had been blown up (almost)
(3) It was 5:30 p.m. What were the chances that a tire place would be open on a Wednesday evening in Mackinac City?
(4) Our plans for the evening included driving back to Dark Sky Park to view the stars (which I dearly wanted to do).
SIGH ...
I got back in the car, told Emma the news, and then ... prayed.
"Lord: We have a flat tire! I have no spare tire! The shops are closed! Please help! Show me what to do!"
It was a sincere prayer and kind of a desperate one. I was not despondent ... afterall, I am a daughter of THE KING.
I walked over to the office of this little hotel and asked the gentleman for help. He immediately dropped what he was doing, told me he had a "machine" and that he would come right away. "Thank you, Lord!" He was able to inflate the tire and get the air pressure to exactly where it was supposed to be (I think 43). He advised that we drive back to the hotel and not go anywhere on that tire until we had it looked at. He told us the only auto shop in Mackinac would be open at 8AM the next morning.
SIGH ...
Plan A not only involved going to Dark Sky that night, but it was also planned that we would leave Mackinac City no later than 9:00 to head to the U.P. for the falls and White Fish Point.
Hmm ... perhaps we needed a Plan B.
I told Emma that you must always have a Plan A, B and C (sometimes D, E, and F!). So we drove first to The Hook (to eat dinner ... it was on the way back to our hotel), thanked the Lord for getting us there safely, ate our dinner (with a very nice view of the Lake, but not such great service), got back to our hotel, went swimming, and then turned in for the night.
Krueger's Auto Shop is the only car shop in the entire city. We arrived shortly after 8AM and told them our dilemma. They removed the tire, found that I had driven over a very jagged metal shard, removed it, patched the tire--but then--they called me over to actually SEE the tire. The repair guy put his hands deep into the tire and pulled out confetti rubber--gobs of it! He advised NOT driving on the tire. So my question to him was: "Have you got a replacement tire?" No, he did not. Yikes.
He directed us to Spies Auto Parts & Tire in Cheboygan (about 17 miles down the road), gave us good back-road directions (so we did not have to go very fast) and wished us "luck" getting there.
Spies was SO wonderful. The lady that runs the place (evidently) was super kind. Her golden retriever, Zeus, entertained us while we waited for our tire and $78.01 and an hour later, we were on the road. We left there at 10:30 (or thereabouts), crossed the Mighty Mac (a true thrill) and arrived at Paradise somewhere around 1:00 ... we took a few wrong turns or we would have been there by noon. But what is a trip without a few mistakes?!?
Thank you, Lord, for keeping us safe through this tire mishap! We could have been on the I-75 going 75mph and gotten flat OR we could have been crossing the bridge, OR we could have been in the middle of nowhere! But God took care of us, and with thanks in our hearts, we were able to completely do ALL of our Thursday plans ... just stretched out a bit later than previously thought.
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