There She Blows

This evening my friend Michaele was in town. She needed an outfit for an event she has coming up, so we met up at the mall for dinner and shopping. She was planning on staying at a hotel, but I insisted she save her money and stay with me. After we ate dinner and found the perfect outfit, we headed out for my apartment. (Let me also add that I did not buy a single thing other than dinner...impressive, I know!) We were driving down 285 around 7:30. For those who don't know, 285 is the highway that goes around Atlanta. It's by far the busiest road in Atlanta, and nobody drives slowly. Traffic was still pretty bad from the rush hour, but I was contently listening to the Red Sox game. Iwas driving extra carefully because Michaele didn't know where I live. We got about three exits away from my apartment and all of a sudden I hear this horrible noise that sounds like a plane is landing on my car. I think the car in front of me has had a blow out. Then I realize it's my car making the noise. As I start to make my way through the six lanes of traffic between me and the side of the interstate, I do a double take to make sure my car hadn't slipped into neutral. It was a sound similar to the sound my car would make in college when Jonathan would throw it in neutral while I was driving just to freak me out. However, my car was perfectly in drive. Michaele kept setting up picks to let me over one lane at a time. I finally arrived on the side of the interstate. I got out of my car and went to look at my front tire. It looked like Freddy Crougar had attacked it from the inside out! There was a huge slash about every inch and a half! I was so happy that Michaele was with me; she knew exactly what to do. We walked down the road a bit because we saw a rescue truck ahead. But once we got about half way there, he drove off. We went back and called GDOT. They were trying to figure out where we were when the truck from before came around. They are called Hero trucks. The guy's name was Denny and he changed my tire and put air in my spare. I was fishing through my purse to put together a tip for him. He saw me and asked me what I was doing. I said, "Getting money out." He said, "For who?!" I said, "For YOU!" He said he couldn't take any money because he worked for the government. I asked if he couldn't take even a tip. He said no. Finally I asked if he could take hugs. He said those he could take. After he finished, I hugged him and then he stopped traffic to let us out. We made it home safely, and tomorrow I'll be buying a new tire and having the others checked.