My poor truck

I don't really think a truck is supposed to look like that from the front!

Oh, RIGHT! There is a tire that's a little out of place. Hmmm, that's odd.....

I wonder how much that is going to cost? Yep, definately looks broken....bummer.....

Ok, where do I begin? Yesterday afternoon was one that normally a sane human being wouldn't want to repeat, but me....I'd take it again. I'll explain....

So it was a GORGEOUS day yesterday, in the high 80's, so of coarse it is a perfect "beach" day (a.k.a. Chena Lakes-they have a man made beach there, it's awesome!). I called up my 2 good friends Cindy and Jenny who wanted to join in on the fun. Cindy has 4 kids and Jenny has 3, you'll need to remember this later! Now, Jenny's van was having some issues and wasn't working, but between Cindy's Suburban and my truck, we were able to get Jenny and her 3 kids to the lake all in a seat belt. So Cindy and I realize this in our planning to go, and we drive from the base to meet at Jenny's house in North Pole. We get there at Jenny's house around 1:00 and load up her family-total people count:13. 3 happy women and 10 very excited kids! Now in my truck I have my 3 kids in the back and Jenny's oldest Parker who is 6 in the passengers seat. No big deal, right?

As we drive off to leave all I can think about is how perfect the weather is for the beach and how much fun the kids are going to have.....I turn the corner from her gravel laid road to the paved street and make it about 50 yards down before there is a HUGE thunk, the front right side of the truck is noticably lower and there is a nasty grinding sound along with some slight pulling and lack of motion. I might have been going 20 miles per hour at that point which I am beyond grateful for! Everyone in the truck is safe, but confused. I stop and get out to have a look at whatever that was and come to find out that the ball bearing had literally just given out which then there is a spring loaded bar of some sort that forces the tire outward and grinds all the CV joints/shaft into the ground. Lovely.
As you can see in the pictures my truck is totally broken and in serious need of repair! This is where an almost perfect and wonderful day turned bad. Eeeeeeaaaaaaaak stop! Wrong.

Almost immediately an angel in the form of a man named Mike showed up. He lives on the road and heard the commotion, got on his wife's bike and rode over to help. Mike didn't leave my side until the 2nd tow truck company was commited and well on there way. I was able to get ahold of Cindy and Jenny and they turned around with the other 6 kids to help too. Now Mike is a tow truck driver for the AF Base and knows a lot about vehicles and a lot about towing company's. He brought so much peace to me in a time where all I wanted to do was throw up! Why does that happen? I am already going into a nervous state of shock and shaking like a crazy, I don't want to be puking too!!! Also Mike informed me in on the mechanics of the truck and what happened. Had this happened on the highway driving to Jenny's, I would have most likely spun out of control and rolled my way to a stop totalling my truck. So to make it a little more clear for all of you who don't really know, driving to Jenny's house on the highway about 15 minutes, driving on that little road maybe a minute and a half. Or, heaven forbid after I left what if the ball bearing waited on more minute and I was back on the highway now with my friends boy in my truck. I can't imagine the pain of losing a child of my own, but the guilt and pain of losing my friends baby....yuck. No thank you.

So reality is starting to hit and I am realizing that I am SO lucky and blessed and grateful. I get ahold of Clayton and I get ahold of Sams Club who offers free towing for being a member and then I am on hold for 45 minutes waiting for someone to take my call. In the mean time, the kids are not so excited but still being VERY patient and good. Cindy has a DVD player in her Suburban and that was a big help! Not to mention we had all of our beach chairs to sit on too. Finally I get an agent to take my call and I give her most of my info before we get cut off! NOOOOOOO! So I get to call and start all over again waiting for a new agent to take my call, another hour goes by and finally we get a tow truck out to help. Nope, it was the wrong kind of truck. The guy needed to have a wrecker type (Tow Mater) and not the flat bed type that just drags the truck up. So now the tow truck driver is on the phone waiting for another 45 minutes waiting for some help. Luckily he bumps me up to a priority status (Thanks to Mike!) and has a different towing company coming to help because he didn't have a "wrecker". The other company has told us that it is going to be about 90 minutes before he can get to us. It is now after 4:00 so we decide to gather up the kids and go back to Jenny's house to wait until the other tow truck calls me and lets me know he's almost there.

I have left out a huge part and I am not sure where I can fit it in so I guess this is going to have to do. The neighbors....oh, the neighborhood! AMAZING!!! If I had to count how many cars drove past us on that tiny road during those 3 hours I would guess 40. Every single car stopped and asked if we were ok, if we needed anything, if we wanted some water or help or a mechanic. The people that live in that neighborhood are so friendly and kind. The lady that lives in the house next to where I stopped has a nice big green lawn and a kids pool in the front. She came home for lunch and offered the kids to come out and play over there. Who does that? I would like to think that I would, but I would have to actually think about it first. I know I wouldn't say "no" to kids playing in my yard, I'm just afraid that I would be too busy to notice! Another neighbor man came over and stayed with us most of the time too. He brought cold bottled water over for us and helped out too. When I was all done with the tow service and there by myself ready to walk back to Jenny's, he quickly got his 10 year old son in the truck with him (so I wouldn't feel uncomfortable) and drove up next to me saying, "Come on in, this is the least I can do...let me give you a ride back to your kids." Even though it was only a couple blocks, I took him up on the offer mostly so I could have the chance to thank him again and find out where Mike lives. Who does that?? Jenny, you live in the best area! Great, great neighbors!

So back to the story....we say good-bye to Mike and the other guy and we get the kids to the house and barely sit down before I get a call saying the tow truck is almost there. Wow! Only 15 minutes had passed out of 90! Sweet! I run (literally) over there so he doesn't beat me and waited not too long before I see a truck with out a crane! NO! NO! NO! The driver gets out and takes a look and the first thing he says is, " I brought the wrong truck. I shoulda brought my wrecker. I could go back and get it but it's gonna take me an hour or so." Yep, I know. They told him to bring the wrecker on the phone, I was right there. But me, sweet, nice Kari didn't say that instead I kept my mouth shut and smiled. The driver decided to drag my truck onto the bed and in doing so had the wheel bending in some horrible directions, so I had to open my mouth and jump far out of my comfort zone to yell at him and tell him to STOP. He didn't want to so I had to yell again, "NO! STOP! I don't want anything else to get broken." The funny guy, he tells me "All them parts are gonna have to be fixed anyway, it's not gonna break much more than that. I'm just bendin that bar there." WHAT?!?! The straight super straight, is supposed to be straight bar!? I didn't say that. That would have killed me. Instead I just said "Please stop. If we need to get the other truck I would rather that then break my entire front axle." So he said, "Well, let me try one more thing quick." And he walked over and pushed the wheel straight like it should sit or rest normally and then pulled the truck up with all sorts of ease. Ummm, I like to think that I am a nice person but all I could think at that moment was "DUH!"

All in all, the day is over. The truck is broke but not to expensive to fix and luckily Clayton is amazing and has many talents-mechanic being one of them! Nobody got hurt! I had my 2 friends and their 2 cell phones to use! Mike! The rest of the neighbors! The kids and their patience! The timing of it all was perfect. Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to go to the "beach" yesterday, but we all went today instead. I just feel so blessed. Call me crazy, but if it is going to happen, it would take it again just as it was yesterday!