Vacation 2008 -- #2

Post#1

The plan for Wednesday was to attend the high water mark for our church's 'Wonderful Wednesday' programming for the summer, Kokomo Beach. Kokomo Beach is a small family-friendly water park in Kokomo, Indiana. We has been last year and had a good time. We would stay there until the early afternoon and then go directly to Michigan from there.

With the late-night discovery of a screw in possibly an irreparable location on one of our tires, I, at that point, ever the optimist, considered a trip to Kokomo Beach dispensable. The tire seemed to be holding air at that moment, but who knows what it would look like in the morning. Who knows whether or not I'd be able to get it repaired or replaced.

Early Wednesday morning, the tire did not appear to be any worse than the night before, so I called my mechanic in Alexandria. He said to bring it up for him to have a look at it, so I did. He believed it could be repaired, so he set to work removing the screw and plugging the hole. We'd be able to go to Kokomo Beach, as planned, after all! All was going well until he added the appropriate amount of air back into the repaired tire. It was only at that point that he noticed a bulge appearing in the sidewall of the tire. The screw came out OK and the hole it left was repairable, but it had damaged the sidewall of the tire. It had to be replaced -- only he didn't have the right size tire on hand. He thought he could get one in my Noon. I said nothing, but he read the disappointment in my face. "Let me see what I can do," he said. He made a phone call and then told me there was a tire place in Anderson that had the right sized tire for what I needed. They were expecting me as soon as I could get there.

I can't tell you how valuable a good relationship with an honest auto mechanic is. This isn't the first time I've needed emergency service on a vehicle immediately before leaving town with it on a long trip -- and it isn't the first time I've received it either. The man's name is Dick Humphries, and he owns and operates Humphries Automotive in Alexandria, Indiana.

I got to the tire place in Anderson without incident and was in and out of there in about 30 minutes.

We finished loading the van and we were on our way!

We made it to Kokomo Beach just a few minutes after it opened and had a great day there. The weather was perfect and it was good to visit with several friends from Church. Believe it or not, I had my camera bag with me at the water park, but never pulled it out. I guess we were all having too much fun!

We fueled up on our way out of Kokomo and made decent time to Christy's parent's house in Cadillac, Michigan.