flat tire Archives

Mystic Dunes. Sounds kind of like a Fantasy novel doesn’t it? I’m about to find out if it lives up to its name.

There are many perks to owning a time share but one that always comes as a surprise to me are the free trips. Well, not entirely free. They require you to listen to a sales pitch for 90 minutes. At my last “update” I decided it was time to upgrade my membership. Changes were coming and it was likely that I would not see these deals again and I do love my time share. As a thank you for upgrading they gave me a “Dream Vacation” to Las Vegas (including round trip air fare for 2)and a trial trip of 3 days and 2 nights at Mystic Dunes in Celebration, FL. I also had a ton of points (think time share currency) that I would lose if not used by December 31 so I found myself back in the air heading to Orlando a mere month after my vacation to New Orleans.

Mystic Dunes

To fly down, come back home, and fly back again didn’t make any sense so I negotiated an extra night at Mystic Dunes and rented 2 more nights (for about the same cost as that extra airfare would have been), making my planned stay Dec 1-December 6. Then I planned to hop a commuter flight from Orlando to Miami for another week in South Beach Dec 6 – Dec.13. I should be good and relaxed when I get back to work.

I flew Southwest from Providence to Orlando where I made a spur of the moment decision to upgrade my Enterprise rental car from economy to what ever they had on the lot with a GPS. What they had was a Lincoln Navigator. Talk about a top of the line upgrade. I wasn’t sure if I was going to faint from shock or laughter. This huge behemoth of an SUV just for me! It had automatic running boards that popped out when you opened the door and a good thing too or I would have needed a step ladder just to get into it.

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The salesman helped me load my luggage in back and set the GPS for Mystic Dunes before sending me on my way.

Now remember, no trip is without its pitfalls. If you keep that in mind you will be able to handle the little trials that come out of no where.

I had just left the airport and was trying to pull onto RT 528 when I realized I couldn’t adjust the side mirror. It was folded in on itself. Trying to navigate Florida traffic without a passenger side mirror is suicide but pulling onto the shoulder to make the adjustment was even worse so I drove very cautiously waiting for an exit.

Before I could find one an alarm went off on my dash board. The rear hatch wasn’t closed. Apparently the salesman hadn’t pulled it shut when he loaded my luggage. I had visions of my bags falling out and bursting open all along the highway.

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By now I was on RT 4 and exits were starting to show up. I pulled off at an exit for a Comfort Inn. Using their parking lot I first closed the rear hatch, breathing a sigh of relief that both bags were still there, then released the side mirror and adjusted it.

Getting back on the highway was a little tricky but once there I settled in for a GPS directed drive to Mystic Dunes. But such was not to be. I’d barely gone 2 exits when another alarm went off on the dash. This one said low tire pressure. Give me a break! The car didn’t have 5000 miles on it. The next exit was my old faithful. The exit to the resort I usually stay at, Cypress Point so I pulled off knowing there was a gas station.

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Before I did anything I looked the tires over. They looked fine to me. Big tires! Then I tried calling Enterprise roadside assistance who told me to fine a tire store and have them fix it. The “helpful” woman gave me an address for a Tire store but someone did not have up to date info. There wasn’t one there. After driving around for 2 hours (on the allegedly flat tire) I found a Walmart where they helped me out in the tire center. The right front tire was “soft”. They topped off the air and sent me on my way once more.

As it was now approaching 2 pm and I had yet to even have breakfast I decided Mystic Dunes could wait a little while so I could enjoy some lunch. There was a Golden Corral right down the street so that was were I headed.

Or maybe I should say Old Man Winter is a tease. Tuesday was a beautiful day. We had blue skies and no wind. I went out dressed in layers expecting to be cold but it wasn’t too bad. According to the weather folks we never broke freezing but the lack of wind and the bright sun made it seem almost like a “day at the beach”.

I made sure to grab my camera as I headed out. I had a long list of errands and then had to go to our Foxboro Office for my annual review. Yes, it was my day off but the alternative was a drive to Somerville on Friday. After that I had to head to Stoughton (20+ miles away) to meet with my Tax Guy and get my taxes filed. Even so I was optimistic that I could squeeze in some quality time with the camera. My goal, some quality shots for the 365 challenge. So far the challenge has been to get any shots, forget about quality!

I hopped in the car and put it in reverse to back out of my parking space and it felt, well, weird. It felt like the emergency brake was on but it wasn’t. I finished backing out and tentatively tried going forward…same thing. Now I thought I knew the problem..must be a flat tire.

I pulled into the next slot over and got out to look. Sure enough, flat as a pancake! I grabbed my cell and called AAA then I called my auto repair shop and made arrangements to bring the tire in. Finally I texted my boss to let him know what happened. It was only 10:30 and my review wasn’t until 1 pm but who knows how long I’d have to wait for AAA and then at the shop for the tire repair. I felt like the Geico commercial.

Sometimes things just fall into place. AAA arrived pretty quickly and changed the tire for me. We couldn’t see any reason for the flat. Valve stem looked fine, no nails or visible punctures, guess it will be up to the repair shop to get to the bottom of it.

The shop I use is about 5 miles down the road from me so even with traffic I was there before noon. Since I’m a regular they know me and took my tire right in. The tires are fairly new so I expected a repair. But noooooo. Randy, the manager, called me in and showed me where the side wall was starting to leak. He said it looked like I may have scraped it on a pot hole or curb. Well I knew I hadn’t hit a curb but there are certainly enough pot holes this year. I hadn’t hit any straight on but maybe in trying to avoid one I might have clipped it just right on the side. There was no saving the tire. 🙁

I told him to put on a new one and get me on the road. He did it right away. Turned out I was only 10 minutes late for my review but after the review it was still back to Stoughton and then all the errands I didn’t get to do in the morning. Needless to say there was no quality photography time.