We wake up at a normal hour to finish packing prior to our 12:30 flight. It's hectic (of course) but all gets done. We hit the road with little issue. Little to no traffic lets us cruise to airport in record time. A mile and a half from the airport a sound rings clear from the front of the vehicle. We have a blowout. Thank god for the Benz, we don't even swerve. I pull over to inspect the damage - front tire has a triangle shaped piece torn from the inside of the wheel. The wife and I rush as quickly as possible to change the tire. See, I haven't change a tire on the Benz before - and didn't we just buy 4 new tires last year!? So I read the instructions in the manual and start the process. One little problem: according to the road side assistance lady...
"...once you remove the 6 lug nuts the tire should come right off...nothing else is holding it in place...you might run into the fact that they rust sometimes...tap gently to loosen it..."Right, so after I've used every profanity known to man, beaten my expensive rim into a nasty condition, my tire is still stuck to the car. I'm pulling, yanking, and still nothing. Nothing till I notice that the threads and the opening aren't aligned. I twist the tire back and forth till it comes loose. We slap the spare on, drive no more then 50mph to the airport, and make it with enough time to eat lunch. Also, when we pull into the parking lot waiting for us is a luggage cart - someone was looking out for us.
Needless to say we finally made it to our destination (even if Southwest lost our car seats) with a borrowed set of car seats for the little ones.
Happy Holidays everyone.
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