Close Calls… Maybe Too Close?

Well, this is describing an incident I experienced today. This morning I was driving to Dillon for a golf tournament.  I was on the highway and  was completely find. A bit tired but I had no problems. I golfed okay, it wasn’t great but I held together. Then I hung out with an old friend who lived in Dillon. At five I decided to make the hour long trip back home. About 12 miles out of Dillon I heard a loud pop and the next thing I knew I was off the road and in the area between the southward highway and the northward highway i was on. I don’t know what happened but all I remember is that my girlfriend’s name, Katina, flashed through my mind and then suddenly I might have been sideways but I don’t know. Then I was back on the road. I might’ve been sideways and drifting or I might have been straight. I just know that this went on for an amount of time and then I was slow, and just off the pavement and I pulled on to the edge and I put it in park and stepped out because I saw someone was stopping to check on me. I quickly looked over the Durango and saw that there wasn’t any damage so I didn’t roll it. I then checked myself and saw I was fine. A bit shaky but I wasn’t injured. I look across the road (I was pulled off on the left side.) and shouted to the kind folks across the road that I was okay. They offered to call someone for me, but I declined since I was fine and the vehicle wasn’t damaged. I got in and started the car, watched the kind people head off and I started to follow. I then noticed that something didn’t feel right with the way it was driving. and so I pulled over, this time on the correct side of the road, and I looked over the wheels and saw that the rear driver’s side tire was completely flat. I immediately called my grandfather, who owns the Durango, and told him what happened. I told him I was uninjured and that the car was undamaged except that I had a flat. He said he would call Triple A.

A few minutes later he called back and told me he would need to be there to use the card and he couldn’t add me to the account because the offices were closed.  So then he told my mom what happened and she called my old friend’s father, Mike, to come help. I had never changed a tire before so I didn’t know what to do, and since I was close to Dillon she had Mike come teach me to change it. I waited about 20 minutes, reading in the owner’s manuel how to do it, with out quite being able to get the spare tire off. Mike showed up and I thanked him for taking time and helping me. He quickly got the spare off, and got the blown tire off and we got the spare on. We inspected the deflated tire and couldn’t find any damage to it. Until we looked at the inside of the wheel and saw that there was a hole in the wheel. The wheel had a hole. We think it may have been a rock, but then I thanked him kindly and shook his hand and I got in and continued on my route home and before turning around at the control access he made sure it was driving alright. I was shaken by this experience but 2 hours and 20 minutes later I have shrugged it off as another memory.
If it wasn’t for Mike I would have been stuck there for about an hour as my mother or grandpa drove down from Butte.  Thank you, Mike!