Tire woes

We forgot to put on the blog about our tire experience when Joe and Dad came to town. While we are going down to Bahia Honda, I noticed that my car was vibrating a little bit and slightly pulling to one side. It wasn't that bad, so I decided to just wait till after spring break to fix it. However, it got worse on by the time we returned home from the Keys. It was so bad that the steering wheel was noticeably shaking. I was getting really worried about it, but it appeared that I was the only one. So on Monday we decided to go to Fakahatchee State Park to find wild orchids. My car was shaking the entire time, and I was getting really concerned. It didn't seem to matter what speed I was going it always shook.

Finally on the way back from Loop Road, I decided to pull over and just do something (I didn't know what but do something). Not knowing what else to do, we decided to rotate the tires to see if that would help. While changing one of the front tires, Joe noticed that the tire had a bulge in its tread. We put the spare, which is only a doughnut, to get back into town. The next morning I needed to take Dad and Joe to the airport in my car. I was so worried about driving 50 miles using a doughnut, thast I asked Patricia to drive us to the airport instead. However, not all the luggage would fit in Patricia's car, so we decided to take my car after all. I was not at all happy about it, but we had no choice. About one third of the way to the airport, another tire went flat! I couldn't believe our luck. We had a flat, a tire with a bulge, and we were still using the spare! Now we had to put on the tire with a bulge in the tread again and go extra slow to not cause any more damage. We made it another 10 miles, and the spare went flat. Now we are on the side of the freeway without any more spares. I have never been in a situation where three tires go flat on one trip! Dad and Joe had planes to catch, so they took a taxi to the airport, abandoning us on the side of the road. Thankfully our colleague was able to come and take us and two tires to a repair shop to get them replaced. Then we had to return with the two new tires, put them back on the car, and take the rest of the tires to have them replaced. In the end we took three hours longer than the expected and spent a lot more more money than we expected.

Moral of story: Don't buy tires from a Cuban on the side the road!