Photo 72

Here's how the story went:

Thomas got home at 9:45 after his early morning flight from Florida. We QUICKLY packed the truck up with the stuff I'd gotten together yesterday and this morning. We were on the road by 10:30. GREAT TIMING, huh?

WELL....I forgot to print off directions, so I looked it up on Thomas' phone...didn't zoom out from the map to realize that we were NOT going on the route to the PINEY campground in Land Between the Lakes (which stretches from middle Kentucky down to Dover, TN - which is where PINEY campgrounds are at)

We drove...and drove...about 2 hours into the trip, after getting off the main road to head the direction to the campground (we thought) we hit something in the road and the tire literally blew a hole.

AND APPARENTLY Dodge thinks it's a GREAT IDEA while you're in the midst of needing to change a tire, to prove that you're NOT a thief...they put security measures in place. WHY? You're changing a tire MOST OF THE TIME and using a spare when you're stuck and not able to GET to a station to fix it immediately. Meaning...it's an emergency.

It took Thomas 30 minutes or more to figure out how to get the spare off. THEN on to the flat tire. All lug-nuts off but one. COULD NOT get it off because it's round and not octagonal shaped like the rest. DID NOT know that it required a special key (anti-theft security, remember?) and wasted another 45 minutes trying to figure it out before finally calling my dad (after NOT finding anything in the MANUAL about it - HELLO, DODGE!!!! That's what a manual is FOR!)

THEN - got the last lug-nut off...and the tire should just plop off, right? WRONG! It was stuck - literally! STUCK. AS in rusted to the wheel, stuck. As in Thomas had to be very dangerous and get underneath the truck which was jacked up and kick the tire off after failing to get it unstuck with a hammer & screwdriver.

UGH UGH UGH...

Get the spare on, take off...then realize we're going the wrong way. As in 1 1/2 hours out of the way, wrong way.

FUN. Get to the campsite and Thomas (since he's still not great with backing up the camper, lol) decides to pull into the grass and back STRAIGHT up into the site. GETS STUCK. Yep...

Then it starts to sprinkle...so no fire for that night. Yep - great start to the trip, but needless to say, we were all VERY ready for bed that night and in fact, were all asleep by 8:00. WHEW...