Our Modern Miracle

Michael and I caravaned up to Ft. Worth on Friday. We went to see family and I needed to be back for Sunday that he was staying for. We left about 4pm, he drove the Honda with the boys and I drove the van with Alyssa. He had a great time chatting away with the boys and I had a great time with Alyssa napping half of the way:) A 3 hour drive, we planned to stop to eat, and when Michael called me on his handy dandy pay per minute cell phone and said Matthew needed to pee so it was a good time. He hung up and about 10 seconds later I see him put his hazard lights on and pull over to the side of the freeway. Luckily there was construction, so it was actually about 2 lanes worth of shoulder. I thought matthew must have really had to pee. Michael got out and motioned with his hands that he thinks he has a flat tire. He looked at all 4 tires and came back to tell me he heard a clunk. We were almost to the exit, so I figured we just got the 1/2 mile and eat and check it out better.

I said I wanted anything but mcdonalds. We get to the exit (both still have hazard lights on) and the first place off the exit, he turns in to, which happens to be a mcdonalds:) When we got out and he told me he couldn't brake, he had to use the emergency brake, so i was ok with the mcD's choice. He is very concerned as we go inside to order and call triple A for a tow. When we found that wasn't an option (small town), he decided to take the tire off and tinker around, and found the brake pad was barely hanging on with 1 loose bolt on the tire. He has not worked on cars since our marriage, but i guess he used to do a lot on his old clunker in high school, so had a decent knowledge base. With the help of his brother, david, (if only we got that navigational system) he found an auto zone that was supposed to have a bolt that could match it. Well, a.z. was not helpful b/c "sorry we close in 5 minutes, try O'Reilly's" so since we had the van, he drove to O'reilly's while we played at mcdonalds. Long story short...he found a replacement and tool and only spent $13, fixed it, took a test drive around the parking lot slamming on the brakes, and we were ready to head out. He is mad b/c we just had brakes redone last month and he says they didn't attach it properly so he's gonna complain to them. Only a 2 hour detour, we made it to his brothers home by 9pm. Our modern day miracle. We feel blessed that we were protected on the road, and a fairly quick solution.