Stuck On The Side Of The Highway: A Road Trip Story With Mark

A side of the road saga.

I don't know if you heard my story on the air Monday morning, but I had a flat tire...in the middle of nowhere, on the interstate on a lovely 95-degree day. I couldn't make the next off-ramp, and there was no wide spot in the road. And my tire was losing air fast. Terrific.

My pickup is only three years old, and I've never taken the time to see where GMC hid the jack and assorted pieces, but I found them. They were secured under the back seat with little jobbies that took about 25 spins apiece to get out. Then came the assembly portion, figuring out which of the 3 pieces goes in which order. It shouldn't have been so confusing, but I was mad and it was hot.

I'm usually the guy who is 100% prepared for any emergency, but I wasn't this time.

It only took me about ten minutes to do the trigonometry to get the spare out from underneath the pickup.

Note to GMC pickup owners: the jack that they provide for you is barely adequate. As soon as I got back home, I tossed an actual jack in the back of my pickup, just in case I hit a nail or something soon.

I took the flat tire off and set it to the side. As I reached for the spare, out of the corner of my eye, I saw my flat take off rolling farther down the roadside. Swell.

Long story short, I stopped at Les Schwab in Butte and bought 4 new tires because I had changed my last tire.