The Big Explosion

For about a week our car has been rattling left to right really bad. We haven't been taking the freeways because it's felt too dangerous at high speeds. Well, on Monday I decided to try the freeway anyway {very bad idea}. I had to pick up Pete from work and it was easiest to get there via freeway. I was going 65 MPH and it like our car was going to fall apart. The car was shaking so bad! I slowed down to 55 and it helped a little. I was just about to get off the freeway because I didn't feel safe at all when the car literally exploided on me. I felt a loud bang beneath me. Then, there was another bang and the smell of smoke. I wasn't sure what was happening. I was able to stay in control of the car, which was a blessing. My first reaction was to put on the brakes. But, then I looked in my rear view mirror and noticed there was a truck right behind me. I knew if I stopped I'd cause an accident. So, I hurried and looked to my right and saw that there weren't any cars. I was able to move over two lanes and pull of the side of the road. After I calmed down I looked down a realized that one of the airbags on my right side had gone off. It totally hit my arm as it went off. I had a huge red mark on my arm and it started hurting really bad. I called Pete and told him that our car exploided. He wasn't suprised. We thought it was about to blow up. He was glad we were all ok. Then, I called my parents and asked if they could come help me. I didn't want to get out of the car to see what had happened. I didn't want to get hit, and I didn't want people to see it was a woman in distress {never know if they would stop for the right reason}. Plus, I had both of my little boys with me. I didn't want anything to happen to them. When my dad and brother got there {about 40 minutes after sitting there all worried and scared} we figured out that the tread on my front right tire had come off.....which made this big piece of plastic under the car come off.....which made my airbag go off. The messed up tire still had air in it. So, we decided to just drive it slowly off the next exit , which was only 1/4 mile away. We put the boys in my brothers truck just to be safe. Then, my dad drove my car off right behind my brother. We pulled off into the closest parking lot. My brother put my "donut" tire on. Then, my dad I headed off the get a new tire. We hadn't gone very far when we realized that the "donut" had gone flat. So, we parked the car again and all loaded into my brothers truck. We put the blown tire in the back of his truck and took it to wal-mart to get repaired. It was going to take half an hour so we just left it there. My brother took us to my parents. Pete had his brother pick him up and he met us there. So, then him and my dad went back to wal-mart to get the tire, and then they went back to our car and put the new tire on. Pete made it back to my parents house all in one piece. The car didn't shake with the new tire on it. So, that was good. Glad it wasn't a bigger problem. I was still in alot of pain from the airbag. It felt like I had gotten beaten up. My shoulder, wrist, arm, and head hurt. It was crazy. But, I was glad that's all the injuries that came out of it. It could have been a lot worse. We all felt very blessed. Here are a few pictures from my experience.This is what my shredded tire looked like. Pretty crazy, huh?

Here's my brother taking the tire off.

Here's the piece of plastic that came off.

Here's Bryson being the little helper. He was quite fascinated with it all.

I should have taken pictures of the exploided airbag. It came out of the side of my seat. It totally ruined my seat. It made it come all unsewn. So, the stuffing is showing all the way down the side. It's pretty ghetto. I'll have to hand sew it shut. Weird!

Anyway, I've decided my life always has some sort of excitement in it. Never a dull moment!