We left for Charleston on Friday to go and spend the weekend.  I spoke Sunday morning at Santuary Church, and we had a great time. The entire weekend was great…Shawn and his team were amazing hosts. Getting there was another issue all together.

Last Wednesday we went to sears and bought four brand new tires. I won’t divulge what we spent on them, but suffice it to say they were not cheap. I’m sure, like me, you would assume that the purchase of four new tires would mean a smooth ride in…not the case. About four hours into the trip on a back road outside of Aiken, SC we had a major blowout.

The next hour and forty five minutes was spent trying not to be crushed by my own truck. After getting covered with tire huz getting the spare from beneath the truck, I placed the jack under the frame, as I have done several times before. This was one of those threaded hand crank type of jacks, which are terrible by nature.

I drive a Nissan Armada, which is about the size of a Suburban, so that would be certain death if this thing fell. Twice the jack slipped…tread just gave out when the truck was jacked all the way up. The second time it slipped, it fell so quickly that the jack dug a hole into the black top on the side of the road. At this point I am exhausted and frustrated trying to get this thing to work, and praying that we don’t get stuck on the side of the road all night.This last time I began cranking this thing again and it was holding this time.I have never changed a tire so quickly. I think I could definitely work for Nascar now.

Coming home was another adventure all together. When we checked in to our hotel, although the Sanctuary had arranged for our room, the very (I’ll choose to say rude here because it is nicer) person at the front desk insisted that we put down our card to hold the room. They placed a hold on our card that didn’t get released and won’t get released until after the holiday. This hold locked down our account, completely unknown to us.

We left for home yesterday, and were on the same back roads where we had the blow out on Friday. We stopped at a gas station, and when I went to prepay for the gas my card was denied.Three times denied. So there we are, in Aiken, SC again, with no money, our credit card at home (because we have been transitioning to an all cash system) and a quarter tank of Gas…with 199 miles to home.

We still had $17.50 on a gift card that had been given to us, and so we drove, and drive until we just couldn’t…and on a quarter tank of gas, and the $17.50 that would give us another quarter tank when we were about 99 miles out we made it home.

I still don’t know why we encountered so much insanity getting there and back again. And I still don’t know how we made it home, driving with hardly any gas at all. I have no answers, I am just grateful to God that I didn’t get crushed by my truck, or stuck in the middle of no-where South Carolina.