Frequent Driving Miles & Unexpected Surprises (Part 1 of 2)

April 10th, 2022 | EP. 5.1 – Frequent Driving Miles & Unexpected Surprises (Part 1)

Welcome back to another edition of Gracies World. Over the past couple of days, Grace has continued to grow and get stronger. As mentioned in the previous blog, Grace has now moved out of the ICU and is in her very own comfy villa. The weekend proved to be a great weekend with some unexpected hiccups (not related to Grace’s health) and some amazing unexpected surprises. As you can probably tell from the featured image of this blog post, Tommy had an unexpected tire blowout. Just look at the damage to that tire! How does a tire blow out like that? I have no clue. I mean, love cars and trucks; however, when it comes to the mechanics of cars and trucks, I am very illiterate. Actually, let me be more specific, I enjoy hypercars and supercars. We’re talking Lamborghini’s, McLaren’s, Porshe’s, Ferrari’s, Bugatti’s, and Pagani’s. Let’s just say I have a taste for the finer things in life. I’m afraid, if I ever got the opportunity to afford one of these supercars or hypercars, I would be like a wolf who tasted blood for the first time. UNCONTROLLABLE.

Nonetheless, as you can see, my truck tire completely blew out Thursday evening on my way from work (Middlebury, IN) to the hospital where I spend Thursday evening through Sunday at the hospital with Abby and Grace. In this particular instance, it was extra crazy. I was about an hour away from the hospital on interstate 94. At this point in time, it was about 6:45 PM and I’m getting antsy to see my wife and daughter. Missing them every day I’m away. Additionally, in my rearview mirror, I can see big dark clouds heading my way. “This is not ideal” [I thought to myself]. So there I am just cruising along, maybe speeding a little more excessive than I should be driving. …Or maybe I wasn’t. Y’all can be the judge on that one. All of sudden, I feel my truck getting a little squirrely. I look in my mirrors and there is smoke coming out the backend of my truck. So I instantly move over from the fast lane (oops, maybe a little hint to my speeding contemplation above) and over to the slow lane; and finally the right side of the shoulder where I came to a complete stop fairly quickly.

As I waited for all of the major traffic to pass by before opening my driver door, I was fairly confident that my tire was shot. Then I start to question, do I even have a spare tire? I get out to assess the damage and the tire was obliterated. Wow… Wow… Wow… WOWZERS!! Couldn’t believe how it blew out. After getting over the shock of my tire and collecting myself, I take a glance back from the direction I came from, and as a certified weatherman that has no weather forecasting background or education, it was clear that I might want to speed this tire changing process up. There was a storm uh-brewing. Fortunately, Grandpa Mark Taylor taught me everything I need to know about basic vehicle maintenance. More specifically, how to change a tire. Knowing this, I’m feeling pretty cocky. I call Abby and tell her the situation. Abby, of course, was very disappointed that I wouldn’t be there till later than expected. I mean, what person in the world wouldn’t be disappointed that my (Tommy Taylor) presence was going to be delayed? I suppose my boyish looks and good charm is pretty addicting. Hey, I didn’t ask for these blessings, God just gave them to me. SOOOO, I got that going for me (haha).

Anyways, I give Abby the news and I get to work on getting all of the tire changing equipment out of the truck and the spare tire down from the backend of the truck. So far so good. I’m a pro. Piece of cake (Sidenote: trying to get tire-changing equipment out of a truck filled with a baby car seat and a bunch of baby clothes and books, is a lot harder than I had imagined). I then get the back right of my truck jacked up and I’m ready to loosen the lug nuts on my destroyed tire. …Annnnndddd then problem #1 occurs. The standard-issue Ken-Tool Lug Nut Wrench (the thing that goes over your lug nuts to loosen them up) is too shallow to fit over the whole lug nut. I tried a couple times and was unsuccessful at loosening the lug nuts. More-so, I think I made matters worse because I was starting to strip the lug nuts. I slammed the Ken-Tool Wrench onto the ground and I started kicking the tire, yelling non-obscene frustrating words and asking God: “WHY? Why through all things going on, does this have to happen now?”. Still concerned about the stormy weather on its way (and keep in mind, it’s almost 7:30 PM at this point in time), I pull out the tool that is destroying teenagers and the youth of today’s healthy habits – my soul-sucking iPhone. I do a quick Google search for roadside assistance near me and apparently, roadside assistance is only needed between the hours of 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM. That’s good to know. Next time I have a tire blowout, I’ll try to make sure it happens between those hours.

Eventually, I get ahold of an after-hours (aka – this is going to cost me more money) tow truck service. Buds Wrecking Service. Sounds like a horror film wrecking service company if you ask me. (Quick note: there is foul language that occurs on and after minute marker: 2:30 of the video below for those of you who have children, or wish not to hear foul language)

They mention that they are about 15 mins from my location and they have an impact driver that can remove the lug nuts for me for a small fee of $73. Kind of an odd number, but I don’t really have any options, so I agree. They send out a new employee. Day #1 on the job. This was to ensure that the customers can use their services with maximum confidence. Thanks, Bud [I enthusiastically say with sarcasm]! The wrecking service shows up on time and the new guy actually did a really good job. Kudos to you new guy. We get the blown tire off my truck and put on the spare and tighten up the lug nuts. If there was ever an easy button to press, I just pressed it because: “That was easy”. However, unannounced to me, the spare tire stem (stem – the part of the tire that allows you to put air into the tire) has a leak. So now my spare tire is going flat. GREAT!!! I just paid to have a tire removed since Ford provides their customers with tools that don’t work, now it’s looking like I am going to have to get my truck towed. Double Whammy, because at this point it’s past 8:00 PM and it’s starting to rain. If you didn’t catch it from my previous comment earlier on, there are no tire shops open at 8:00 PM. This means I have 3 options.

1. Leave my truck where it is and call an Uber
2. Tow my truck to a repair shop that won’t be able to do anything until the next day
3. Have my truck towed back home and swap vehicles and I’ll fix my truck when I get back

I opted for choice #3. I was about 35 minutes from home, so it wasn’t too long, but it was long enough to make a $260 dent in my wallet. Come to think of it, that’s about what it would have cost me to just drive my truck home with these gas prices. #LetsGoBrandon. So I wasn’t too disappointed. I get my truck home and have it dropped off in the driveway. I was planning to have dinner with Abby and Grace but those plans conveniently got ruined. Once I got all of our hospital items and baby stuff transferred over to Abby’s car, I was exhausted, hungry and angry. Some people call this mood: “HANGRY”. I call it: “Make me a whole tray of bagel bites and let’s see where this night takes me”. Which is exactly what I did. Seriously though, have you ever seen someone not happy while eating bagel bites? I firmly believe that is impossible to be in a bad mood while eating bagel bites. Straight Facts!

By the time I get everything situated and my tummy is delightfully filled with bagel bites, it is about 9:40 PM. I scamper onward to Abby’s car and start making the 2-hour trek towards Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor. Abby drives a Cadillac SRX and boy, are those seats comfy in her car. The combination of a pleasingly full tummy and comfy seats, one might think: ‘What could possibly go wrong leaving so late at night for a 2-hour drive?’. Welp, it wasn’t long, maybe 45 minutes, before your one and only, Papa-T, started getting heavy eyes on the road. There may have been some sudden swerve maneuvers performed. You know, just checking the tires to make sure they’re good, while also making sure all the cars around me are alert as well.

Next thing you know, I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, I’ve been driving for a while, how much longer until my Ann Arbor exit?”. To be honest, I’m surprised I could even think. I was so tired. I look down at my clock and realized, I should have been at the hospital over 30 minutes ago. Then it hit me… I was so tired and in a deep state of tiredness that I felt paralyzed at moments. Have you ever had one of those dreams where all you want to do is run, but your legs won’t run? That’s kind of how I was feeling with my hands on the steering wheel. When I realized that I had driven past my exit by over 30 minutes (combined with the fear of potentially having an accident), I immediately pulled over to the nearest gas station. Got out of the car. Stretched. Bought an energy drink, 1 zebra cake, and a star crunch. Just what I needed to build some instant energy.

The energy drink kicked in pretty quick. I was back on the highway, backtracking of course, full of energy with no other vehicles around me, except the BMW that passed me doing what I would estimate was about 120mph. How did I come to that conclusion? I have no comment.

Before I knew it, the 30-minute backtrack drive to the hospital only took about 20 minutes. How convenient?! I showed up at the hospital just in time for Elsi, I mean, Abby to relieve her post at Grace’s bedside to go produce some more milk for Grace. What an eventful day I had on that fateful Thursday evening. Everyone was safe and in great condition. Grace has been getting better more and more each day. So proud of my wife and daughter for how strong they truly are in this world. The feeling of exhaustion on my end was overshadowed by the joy and happiness of being able to have Grace Elizabeth reunited in my arm, all cozy, warm, and snuggled right in between the bend of my left arm laying across my body. Grace is amazing. The night couldn’t have ended any better.

Today, as I write this, I am thankful for the presence and power of God. Though we come across unexpected issues, God blesses us with unexpected love and happy surprises through the strength of others around us. What a whirlwind of emotions I had on Thursday. That, my friends, is what I call a full day.

Stay tuned for Gracies World’s next blog post: EP. 5.2 | Frequent Driving Miles & Unexpected Surprises (Part 2) coming soon!

Thank you to all of our supporters and donators. Abby and I love you and are excited to share the future of our journey with you.

Sincerely,
-T.Double