Monday, October 18, 2010

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!


Tuesday, October 5, 2010

October Already??!!

I can't believe that it's already October!! Where did 2010 even go? Things are moving along here in Australia, and as I've mentioned before, it is starting to get warmer here. We've had some really nice Spring days along with some really rainy Spring days. I am hearing good things about October and November. The weird thing will be having a HOT Christmas and New Year's!

One thing that I'm really missing about Oklahoma is football season. It seems that the past few years I have really been into watching all the games, reading the stats and then discussing them with all of the guys at work. Football (or gridiron, as Aussies call it) is just not popular here, so it is hard to keep up. Luckily, I was able to go over to some friend's house on Sunday morning to watch the OU/TX game. Boomer Sooner! We had daylight savings here on Saturday night, so it was on at 6:30 am (2:30 pm Central time in the US), rather than 5:30 am. I must be a dedicated fan! Here is a pic of me with my OU doll (courtesy of the Runyons) and my OU football schedule: