Losing a Tire

So, this past weekend was our Gosford Family Camp. It was a great weekend, but on the way, we had an interesting experience.

Jenny and I had gone shopping for all of the groceries for camp on Wednesday. We had to take the church bus because there was so much food, it wouldn't have fit in the boots of our cars. The "bus" is really just a 14 passenger van and in Australia, you have to have a special license to drive them. Since I still have my American license, I am eligible to drive the bus. Anyway, we loaded up on Friday afternoon, with all of the food and our luggage to head off to camp early. The groceries partly included 18 kilos of beef mince, 10 kilos of pork mince, and a TON of milk! It only takes about 45 minutes to get to camp, so we didn't think we needed coolers or anything, because everything would go right back in the fridge. What we didn't expect is that we would get a flat tire on the way!

I would like to take this time to thank everyone in my life who has told me how to react if a tire blows while driving. I remained calm, kept the wheel steady and pulled off to the side of the road. First of all, we were on the highway (going at least 100 km/hr-about 75mph), I was in the passing lane and it took me a second to figure out what happened. I heard a noise, then smelt something burning and then we realized that the tire had blown. And when I say blown, that is really what I mean. This wasn't just a flat tire, there was nothing left! Luckly, the church has NRMA (like roadside assistance), so we were able to get the tire changed fairly quickly. Quite an adventure! I've never had a flat tire while I was driving before!