Humpback Rocks attempt….Take 1 – 10/24/2021 – Nic of Time

Blake got home from work and we had our traditional Sunday pancake breakfast. After breakfast Blake and I cleaned up while the kids played. We talked about wanting to take the kids on a short hike to see the fall colors, this time of the year the foliage should be around peak. We decided on Humpback Rocks. Humpback rocks is a shorter hike with a lot of elevation gain and amazing views. We tell the kids and they get their packs together and we get in the car and head towards Humpback rocks.

We were on I295 about to get off onto I95 when Blake hit a ratchet strap. He didn’t think anything of it at first and then all of a sudden my car started having warning messages come up and switched to the tire pressure screen. The tire pressure in the tire that hit the ratchet strap went from 38 to 28 to 12 to 0 in less than 1 minute. We were able to get off the interstate safely and pull into an empty parking lot.

The kids had no idea what was going on. Blake and I got out of the car to access the damage and sure enough my tire was completely flat. The ratchet strap we though was still attached to the tire.

I text Blake’s brother because he lives about 25 minutes away and has equipment to help with the tire. Unfortunately my van does not come with a spare tire, it only comes with a tire repair kit. If I purchased the van with the spare tire, it would have taken up half of the trunk space and with 8 kids we need all the trunk space we can get.

We get the kids out of the car and they run around the empty parking lot, using their imaginations to come up with things to do. Kids being kids of course they had to use the bathroom. I would take them one by one to the bathroom at a near by hotel. One by one wasn’t my choice, they said they didn’t need to go and as soon as I got back another would need to.

Ty arrived with his jack and tools and him and Blake went to work to fix the tire. I researched places nearby that were open on Sundays to get the tire looked at an possibly a new tire.

They got the tire off and it was indeed flat. We also caught the culprit.

Ty was able to put a plug in the tire and get the tire inflated.

While we let the plug set, the kids enjoyed their hiking snack and Taylor got to visit with her Uncle Ty.

Blake and Ty got the tire back on the van and hopefully we were good to go. I did find a GoodYear down the street and we took the car by to see if they could look at it. They said that since the plug was in it, they couldn’t do anything and that if it is holding pressure, we should be good to go.

We left GoodYear and headed for home. Of course Blake and I were nervous driving the hour back to the house but we made it back without issues.

This shows that unplanned travel can have unplanned added *bonuses*

We felt bad for the kids and tried to figure out something to do while driving back. We didn’t want to go far incase the tire didn’t hold out.

We ended up taking them to the local pumpkin patch to play until they had to go back to their dads.

We did get one picture of the kids together where they are all looking.

Everyone played on the slide, including Taylor.

At one point Ethan put Taylor in a wagon and played with her for a bit. The whole time Taylor screamed “Go Go Go”

We were able to catch a hayride as it was pulling in and of course the kids loved it. This was a wild hayride. We were flying all over the place and it only made it a lot more fun.

The last think we did at the pumpkin patch is the corn made. The made was a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed running around and playing hide and seek. Taylor also decided she wanted to take a walk.