Spare change

The weekend was over, so it was time to check into van issues. When we were away in Prince Albert, I was concerned about our tires (among other things), so I checked out the spare. The spare tire is hooked up underneath the van at the back, and it looked fine.

Now that we’re home, and Monday had rolled around, I went outside to check the tires again. I needed to make a decision – should we get new tires right away? How many? Which ones? So, I checked them out and … wait a minute …

At first I thought I was just confused. But … no. There was no spare tire! It was gone! Poof! Vanished!

I took it over to a mechanic, and we took another look. It seems likely that the assembly just got rusted and it came right off. But how in the world a whole spare tire fell off the van without us hearing anything or noticing I’ll never know.

Anyway, the good news is that the mechanic happened to have an old spare tire kicking around that fit, so we now once again have a spare. But this time it’s just sitting inside – we’re going to delay fixing the assembly (and replacing any more tires) until we decide what to do about purchasing another van (which we need to do before Mexico anyway). We’re working on that – I hope to visit a dealership or two later this week, then I’ll let you know what we’re planning. Meanwhile, I hope we don’t end with a tire that looks like the one below! But if we do, we’ll be ok, thanks to our spare change.