So, being the romantic I am, I decided on Wednesday about 1pm, while on my lunch break, that I was going to drive down to the Grand Canyon and surprise the g/f with some flowers. The trip started off pretty crappy as traffic was HORRIBLE on the surface streets(as usual for 5pm on a weekday in Vegas). I got out of work at about 5:05 and it took me until 5:45 to go about a mile and a half up the street due to the numerous accidents and construction I didn't know about since I usually take the freeways. Well I finally got the flowers and some food/drinks for the trip up and I got on the freeway about 6:30pm. It was really smooth sailing surprisingly up until my car starts to feel sluggish as I'm going up a hill about 45 minutes from St. George,
Ut near a town called Hurricane. I down shifted assuming the car was bogging because it was in 5th gear going up a hill(it's only a 4 cyl) Well that didn't solve it and then i recognize the feel of a flat tire so I start cursing and trying to find somewhere to pull off. About a mile up I pull off the road and go to change the tire and there's not tire iron!!!
At this point I'm beyond livid. I tried flagging people down for a good 10 minutes(keep in mind I'm in the middle of the desert at 9pm) before a guy stopped and wound up not having a tire iron in his work truck. He went on his way and I thought to use my phone to google a tow company nearby. Called them and they said it'd be 30-45 minutes but they only took a credit card over the phone or cash. Well I didn't have $60 in cash so I gave him my card.
Just as I hang up I see a cop turn his lights on and turn around and stop. He gets out of the car, runs my plate and license, asks me all kinds of questions(what i'm doing out that late, where I'm going, any drugs/weapons, etc) Finally he offers to help search my car for my "tire iron" although I told him I looked everywhere and it just wasn't there. He went back to his car to see if his would work and of course it was too big.
After talking with him for a bit the tow truck FINALLY shows up like 45 minutes after I called him. He tried the 4-way lug wrench and they were all too big. He luckily had a socket set in his car and had the right size socket! He finally got the spare tire on and I was on my way(111 miles from the canyon only able to go 40mph because of the donut). Needless to say my surprise was ruined. I was supposed to get there at 11 and it was now 10:30.
I wasn't gonna get there before 2am at my current speed so I decided to blow my whole cover story and call her and tell her what happened, while leaving the fact I had flowers out. She was so surprised and speechless it was great! I just wish I could've seen her face. She said she'd meet me in a town about 40 miles from where I was in about 2 hours after she got off work and pick me up.
I got to the town in the middle of nowhere and nothing is open since it's after midnight by now and my phone was almost dead. I texted her and told her I'd be waiting at this service station for her. She showed up about an hour and a half later and was really happy to see me as I was to see her.
I told her to pull up next to my car and close her eyes. She did and I pulled the flowers out of my car and told her to open her eyes. Again, she was speechless and had a huge smile on her face! The look on her face was well worth all the trouble I'd been through so far.
This morning I called the service station where I'd parked my car to see if they had my tire size in stock. They didn't and couldn't get it until Tuesday but they said there's a couple tire shops in the next town I could try. Well out of the 3 shops the last place I called had one in stock. Brittney drove me back into town, I got my car took it to the station and they put the new tire on. After all was said and done 1 tire cost me $100! So a grand total of $160 with everything. The trip that was only supposed to cost me $40 in gas wound up costing me over $200 by the time all was said and done.
The lesson I learned from all of this? I need to buy a full size spare, lug wrench, and enroll in
AAA! Oh, and never try to do something like that last minute, it'll just blow up in my face(sometimes literally
).
Now the enchanted rose can be properly watered! 
I'm still about a month out.
Glad it turned out OK
That is so true!!!
