Flat tire in the snow

So Mike and I drove in together yesterday---when there is snow on the ground I don't love sliding down the hill in my VW; I leave complicated tasks like this to Mike. It was a cold snow this time and the steepest part of our commute down hill can be bypassed, by taking the freeway. So, my bright idea was "let's take the freeway". Mike turned left and we headed down Sharlands and as soon as we were merging onto the "fast road", we hear a funny noise.

"What's that?" we said in harmony. "I think we have a flat!" So we pulled off to the "car trouble lane" and sure enough, the front tire was flat. (thanks to a big screw from construction debris we passed while taking my bright idea route to the "fast road"). Instead of hanging out on the freeway, Mike drove slowly over the icy/snowy "car trouble lane" and we back tracked towards an entrance which we used as our exit. It sounds pretty dangerous, but Mike was careful. We teetered and limped into the parking lot of The River church and called USAA roadside assistance.

I actually like my insurance company. When I called them to sign up for car insurance (after living car-free for 10 years), they renewed me under my old plan. For occupation, they asked me, "so are you still a student?" I was still signed up on the plan my Dad signed me up on when I turned 16! Ha! But I digress.

Our little donut spare had about 10lbs of air, and tow-truck companies are no longer allowed to travel with air-compressors. So instead of getting on the freeway, we rolled on the side roads and into a Big-O franchise and bought 4 new tires, windshield wipers and got the oil changed. Better to have this kind of trouble near home than on one of the passes. Sigh.

A few hundred bones and a couple of hours later, we arrived at Sinclair. Heavier Sigh. It could have been worse.

We woke up to more snow dust, but the roads have already melted and with the wind and rising temps, should be ridable in a couple of hours. I snapped some photo's this morning. The blurry one is the moon setting in the West.