The AQS aftermath - Our Homeward Bound Story

Our booth at AQS in Grand Rapids, MI.

This is my final episode in the AQS story.

Not realizing just quite how loooooong the trip by car was, our son, Steven, had scheduled his return flight to Ohio back on Monday afternoon. I told him that I wasn’t sure we could even be back in time to get him to the airport. Thankfully, on the way up, he changed his flight to Tuesday, giving us 2 full days to get home.

As those who have been following our Michigan AQS Saga know, Ken, Steven, and I went to the annual AQS Show in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This was our first ever time to vend at a show this far away, and this large. Becky and I had “done Daytona” and loved it, but this was 17 additional hours away!

When Steven heard we wanted to do this, we told him he could just drive over from OHIO to MICHIGAN, since it’s not far. Instead, he offered to fly down to Florida, and help us to drive up after helping us load up. We were ever so grateful!

He landed on Saturday afternoon; we loaded up Saturday night, and headed out Sunday afternoon, landing in Michigan late on Monday night. That gave us Tuesday to set up, and Wednesday through Saturday to sell.

So, this episode picks up when we were returning home, and stopped for the night just inside Indiana on the return trip home. I had hoped to see Lake Michigan, but that’s going to have to wait for a restful, vacation trip, not a work trip, where we are on a time deadline hauling tons of freight behind us.

After a hotel breakfast, we started off driving, for what I was hoping would be an uneventful day.

We had completed one online church service, and had started in on another one, since it was Sunday, and we were all missing our own home churches.

(Before and afterwards, we were listening to a library book about the MOB, interspersed with the Dave Ramsey show, to keep us all entertained and learning.)

Steven was driving in Kentucky, around 1 p.m. when he said, “We’ve got troubles. I’m seeing rubber flying off.” I saw him steer the cumbersome truck and trailer to the right, going through 2 lanes of traffic to get to exit that seemed to magically appear right then. However, we appeared to be in the middle of nowhere.

By this time, the loud thump, thump, thumping of the tire was quite resounding in my ears, and it was apparent we couldn’t go a long distance like this. We could see NOTHING at that exit, but we could NOT stay on the freeway. It appeared to be one of those exits where you get off just to get onto another highway.

With no time to pull out phones and find a place, Ken said, “Turn right.” So, Steven pulled us right, and a few hundred yards down the road, Steven saw the words, “Race Track Truck stop'“ to the left.

He maneuvered us safely there, and out of everyone’s way. The guys got to work!

Ken had brought his jack to lift anything, but we had no spare. We hadn’t gotten that part done, but we had the other things. Using the tools to remove the lug nuts, Steven worked on that. We had just talked about getting lunch, so I went inside to see what goodies and gas station food might be available. I could tell this was no pit stop like at the Daytona 500.

I chatted with the clerk who told me we were NOT allowed to park there. When I looked at her funny, she added, “Well, not more than 3 hours”… and I said, “Lord willing, it won’t be that long.” I asked her if there was a tire store nearby. Since it was Sunday afternoon, I was relieved to hear of a Walmart just a mile down the road.

So, Ken took off down the road in the truck looking for the Super Walmart, and Steven and I sat around getting some gas station food. Thankfully, even though my phone died, Steven had his small portable charger in his backpack, and I was able to find a TINY cord tucked away in the pocket of my purse.

The gas station food here was pretty decent. I mean, not fancy hotel good, but not rolling-hot-dog-on-a-continually-moving-warmer quality.

We waited and waited and waited for what seemed like an eternity. Seems as the Super Walmart didn’t have a tire store and the next place didn’t have the right size tires. Thankfully, he found yet a third tire store open on a Sunday afternoon.

Finally Ken came back with a new tire that was already mounted on a wheel. We had been needing a spare, so the men got it on quickly, it seemed to me, and we headed back down the road.

We lost about 2 hours in the day for this, maybe even 2.5, but we were incredibly grateful to be safe, and that the Lord had protected us, but we were way behind where we had hoped to be.

Our bright and shiny white wheel looks happy beside her neighboring black counterpart.

Around 8:45 p.m., as we were nearing Chattanooga, our son proposed that we keep on going to get to the Atlanta area, which would mean, that we would then be able to get home in time for him to help us unload our vehicle on Monday afternoon. We would also be back in time for our Monday episode of the Ken and Rachael Show at 3:30 p.m.

However, as we had been coming down the mountains of Tennessee, wandering around on narrow roads, my knees had begun an ache like no other ache. By the time we were at the bottom of the mountain and just south of Chattanooga, the pain was pretty unbearable. So, at the thought of continuing on for another 2 or 3 hours, my body screamed at me, and I told the men that I was in a lot of pain, and I really couldn’t. Ken piped up that he wasn’t comfortable driving in the dark with this setup, and that he felt like we should stop.

Immediately, there was an exit with gas and hotels, and we pulled in there to spend the night. Being able to get out and stretch my legs was incredibly wonderful, and I was able to sleep that night, despite the pain.

Little did we know that the incredible pain (usually I’m pretty tolerant of pain) was sent along to MAKE us stop. I truly believe that the Lord was taking care of us.

This was our nicest breakfast included with our hotel.

The next morning, after a delightful breakfast, we were on the road shortly after 8 a.m., knowing we had a 8 or 9 hour journey ahead of us. But once again, the Lord had other plans for us. Before 9 a.m., this time with Ken driving, we heard a horrific banging noise. thwump, thwump, clang, bang… and once again, the Lord provided an exit right then. NOT 5 miles down the road, but right there. However, it was an exit where we could see nothing… Not the exits where help is everywhere. But, this time, I had my phone out, so we saw a Shell station immediately behind the trees.

It had plenty of space for us, and it was conveniently located right next to a McDonalds.

Familiar with the drill now, I got out, took pictures (you never know when they’re going to be needed), and Steven took the tire off.

But this time our fender was dangling, being held in place by cords that attached the lights of the trailer to the back of the tire area. But, a man came up and asked if we needed help. He had a mobile car repair business, and had the tool we didn’t have to clip our wires. Of course, we had scissors, but his wire clippers did it much more quickly.

In the meantime, I was locating a tire store, which this time wasn’t far, and it was a real tire store, not a super Walmart, without a tire store.

This time Ken bought TWO tires, and got them both mounted, so we now have a bona fide spare with us, and we had a comfortable place to wait across the way in the McDonald’s, where Steven enjoyed a second breakfast!

Waiting is hard when you just want to go home.

Finally, after what felt like eternity, Ken showed up with 2 mounted tires and once again, Steven and Ken went into action, putting the spare back on, and reattaching the trailer.

By then it was like 10:30 a.m. or maybe even 11 a.m. We were finally back at it, clipping away at the miles. But, of course, by now it’s Monday and every semi in the USA seems to be on the road with us.

Our trailer is wider than our truck, so the trip seemed to me to be quite precarious.

Thankfully, with no further real issues, we pulled into the yard of our house at 6:45 p.m., and I had tears of relief spilling from my eyes.

I am confident that the Lord protected us multiple times during this trip, but I am positive that the Sunday night pain was sent by the Lord to get us safely into a hotel where we could get a decent night’s sleep to face the trials ahead.

Yes, I know the Lord could have kept our tires whole. He did that for us going up, when we SHOULD have popped, since we had thousands more pounds on our trailer, than coming back home. The tires had looked good. They had the proper amount of air in them. We were told they were new(ish) when we bought the trailer. But trailers and tires wear out. And two of these did on this trip.

We are safe and sound now. Back at it. We’ll be able to get back to it in full force soon. We have some unfinished business things that we were unable to take care of before we left, and so for a few days, we’ll be dealing with those things.

Thanks for your patience with us, and for praying for us. I know many of you prayed us on in, as you had read about our episode on Facebook!

So, will we do it again? With some tooling or changing, we might. We also might not. Ask us again next year:)

Rachael Woodard3 Comments