About a year ago, my wife and I had a bit of an adventure. We were driving from our home in VA to our other home in GA, moving some of our stuff. She was in our little Subaru pulling our smaller open trailer with parts of our bed in it. I was in the Jeep with the enclosed trailer with a bunch of other furniture. About an hour before the end of our trip I heard a loud bang. I looked in the mirror just in time to see several large chunks of rubber bouncing in the road behind me and other cars swerving to avoid it. There was a loud thumping noise and I knew instantly I had a blown tire. I called my wife on the phone as she was ahead of me so she would pull off the road. I did the same but was able to drive far enough to catch up to her. The rear tire on the driver side was still inflated but there was no tread left on it. I was planning on replacing them all after we got done moving everything in another month as the tread on all of them was getting worn. This just moved up the time schedule. I changed the bad tire with the spare and we got through the rest of the journey with no issue. It cost us nearly $1200 to replace all four tires. There was more damage I needed to fix as well. The back door handle was gone. The rear light on the driver side was shattered. The plastic fender disappeared with the tire parts. The license was gone along with half of the plate holder. The zip-in side canvas window was ripped up. The trailer has a dent in it, but no real damage and I can eventually get in there and hammer the dent back out. I’m glad I have some basic skills to deal with these fairly easy repairs.
Both our cars are getting up there. Her Subaru is a 2018 and already had a little over 100,000 miles on it. My Jeep is a 2010 and just crossed 195,000 miles on this specific trip to GA. Having cars get up there reminds me of an old truck we had back in the day. We bought it when we lived in CA and I was in the Navy. It was a 1974 Ford F-150. We bought it about 1990 and it was pretty beat up. It lasted until about 1996 while we were moving to NE from CO (yes that's CO and not CA). Suddenly, while we were in the middle of NE and a long way from our final destination in Lincoln, all the electrical went out on it. It drove fine, but night was falling and we had no lights. It was full of household effects as part of our move. We decided to stop and stay in a hotel for the night so we could drive the rest of the way in the daylight the next day. That truck had failed bad once before on a trip with the church young men in CO. There was a crack in the manifold and it blew hot air onto the electrical stuff. We were going from our home in Leadville, CO to Lake Powell in southern UT pulling a sailboat and hauling half a dozen young men. We had to be towed the last 20 miles or so and had the garage near the marina fix it while we spent a few days sailing and camping.
That last story is only the latter half of the trials of that trip. We had a Suburban that we had started the trip with and the engine blew up. It cost about $2000 to repair the Suburban and another $500 to fix the F-150. That was by far the most personally expensive church trip I was ever involved in.
That old F-150 inspired a poem. It was showing its age, and so was I, or so it seemed. It makes me laugh now at nearly 60 to think how in my 30s I thought I was getting old. Thankfully for you I won’t make you suffer through reading the poem. In any case, it’s easy at times to think of all the little things in life that seem burdensome. So I’ll leave you with better language from the Master than I could ever muster.
Matthew 11
28. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Both our cars are getting up there. Her Subaru is a 2018 and already had a little over 100,000 miles on it. My Jeep is a 2010 and just crossed 195,000 miles on this specific trip to GA. Having cars get up there reminds me of an old truck we had back in the day. We bought it when we lived in CA and I was in the Navy. It was a 1974 Ford F-150. We bought it about 1990 and it was pretty beat up. It lasted until about 1996 while we were moving to NE from CO (yes that's CO and not CA). Suddenly, while we were in the middle of NE and a long way from our final destination in Lincoln, all the electrical went out on it. It drove fine, but night was falling and we had no lights. It was full of household effects as part of our move. We decided to stop and stay in a hotel for the night so we could drive the rest of the way in the daylight the next day. That truck had failed bad once before on a trip with the church young men in CO. There was a crack in the manifold and it blew hot air onto the electrical stuff. We were going from our home in Leadville, CO to Lake Powell in southern UT pulling a sailboat and hauling half a dozen young men. We had to be towed the last 20 miles or so and had the garage near the marina fix it while we spent a few days sailing and camping.
That last story is only the latter half of the trials of that trip. We had a Suburban that we had started the trip with and the engine blew up. It cost about $2000 to repair the Suburban and another $500 to fix the F-150. That was by far the most personally expensive church trip I was ever involved in.
That old F-150 inspired a poem. It was showing its age, and so was I, or so it seemed. It makes me laugh now at nearly 60 to think how in my 30s I thought I was getting old. Thankfully for you I won’t make you suffer through reading the poem. In any case, it’s easy at times to think of all the little things in life that seem burdensome. So I’ll leave you with better language from the Master than I could ever muster.
Matthew 11
28. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
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