one more reminder of Him

Aug 15, 2011

Dear Father,

Thank you for reminding us yesterday that you are completely knowledgeable about our needs. Thank you for sending people to help us. Thank you for prompting me to go to The Great Outdoor Shop. Thank you for placing the tire we needed right on top of the pile. Thank you for being there…for being here…for being in our lives and reminding us once again that we are never alone.

Yesterday on our way home from our annual camping trip, a tire blew out on our 1970 camping trailer. This caused just a wee bit of a problem.

Problem #1: We couldn’t find our jack. Who knows where it is? It isn’t where it used to be in our old suburban and since we haven’t needed it yet with this newer one we haven’t looked for it yet. Talk about being unprepared!

Problem #2: We didn’t have a spare tire for the trailer.

Problem #3: The trailer proved quite difficult to jack up due to the lack of solidness underneath it. 1970 sub-floor just isn’t a firm foundation for a jack.

Problem #4: The existing tire is an odd-ball size…at least according to the mechanic who stopped and helped us.

Problem #5: We broke down miles away from cell phone service and 35 miles from a town that had no tire stores open on the Sabbath.

Problem #6: After working in the sun for two hours with a great guy, Jimmy, we discovered the tire we thought would fit, simply wouldn’t. No ifs, ands, or buts.

Problem #7: After making the 35 mile trip into the nearest town, we were told we had no options but to stay overnight and hope the tire store would have a tire that would work in the morning, but the last several people who had needed trailer tires had to have them special ordered and sometimes that process takes weeks.

Problem #8: Richard had to be at work early Monday morning and it is now 6:30 Sunday night.

Problem #9: The lady at the Great Outdoor Shop has the brilliant idea to call Tom at the junkyard, but he is 100 miles away and won’t be back until 10 p.m.

Problem #10: We learn from a variety of people doing internet searches for us that our tire size is not made anymore and getting a modern day replacement is often difficult.

Problem #11: Our children have now been in the vehicle for over four hours but we are only 50 miles from our camping spot. All of our food is packed away back at our trailer.

Problem #12: None of the stores within 100 miles of us carry this tire or any of its replacements.

Problem #13: We have to use two jacks blocked up on wood to raise the trailer sufficiently to get the tire off.

Solutions?

Solution #1: Jimmy, a guy who lives up in the wild, year-round, saw us broken down across from his cabin and rode over on his four-wheeler with a ready smile, plenty of know-how, and all the tools a broken-down family could ever need.

Solution #2: Jimmy had a mechanic friend who was coming out for dinner and was happy to help us, as well.

Solution #3: I get the prompting to go to The Great Outdoor Shop and while in there I meet a woman, Linda, who owns the building the Tire Store is in. She tells me there is no way the Tire Store will have that size of tire, but she’ll call her husband and her friend, Tom, and see if they have any ideas. She spends the next hour on the phone trying to find us some help.

Solution #4: I remember the beautiful park in town and Richard drops me, the children, and the dogs off so everyone can run around, use the bathroom, and sit in the shade.

Solution #5: I remember that my friend, Jennifer, has a nearly identical trailer to mine and call her to see if she has a spare that she would drive halfway and meet us. She says she can and we go through a long process with my mother on the internet to see if Jennifer’s tire will work. After an hour of searching, we find out Jennifer’s tire is a tad too big. It took us forever to figure it out because we were looking at tire sizes after 1970 since our trailer wasn’t even made until 1970. We finally found the information we needed on a chart listing tires pre-1964. Yes, somehow the tire on our trailer was made sometime back when my mother was a child. Even though it wouldn’t work, it bolstered our spirits knowing our friends would drive several hours to help us out.

Solution #6: Linda’s husband, who used to own the tire store, returns to town around 8:15 p.m. and has Richard bring our blown out tire over to him. He says that is an odd tire. Steve won’t have one in his shop, but let’s look around in the bin and see what we can find. Are you ready for the miracle? Here it is…Right on top of a massive pile of old used tires, is a fifty-year-old, but brand new, tire with identical tread marks, lug pattern, and sizing to our tire. Right on top. He said it must have just shown up recently when someone with a old trailer finally got rid of their old spare. Now, being fifty years old, there were plenty of cracks in it, but it passed the submersion test, held air just fine, and so he gave it to us for nothing….yes, nothing…and he warned us to not use it for longer than the ride home. Then he also let us borrow his bigger jack.

Solution #7: We headed back out to the middle of nowhere to put the new tire on and with Blythe, Richard, and me all working together holding lights, stabilizing jacks, and positioning jack stands, we were able to get the tire on, return the tools to Jimmy, head back into town and return the second jack, and finally get on our way home around 11:30. Somehow Richard drove us home while the rest of us slept and we piled into the house at 2:00 a.m.

Truly blessed.

So good to remember.