The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and A Giveaway

Here’s the good: This past weekend was Oktoberfest in the Amana Colonies. As usual, I had a wonderful time. I went a day early to stop for a book signing at the Parables/Lemstone Bookstore in Cedar Rapids where I had the pleasure of reconnecting with Janet and Tom Zuber. Tom grew up in Amana and they traveled with the Amana tour group I joined with to visit Europe in June 2011. That's Tom and Janet with me at the right. We had fun reliving a few of the great experiences of the tour. And then I had the fun of seeing Del and Carol Kaufmann who traveled from Illinois for Oktoberfest. They were also on the trip to Europe and visit the Colonies every year for Oktoberfest and Prelude to Christmas. Seeing them added a special note to the visit, too.

I also had great success completing some research for my next book, but I won’t tell you about that just now. I did get to meet with lots of readers and signed lots of books. The number of visitors, especially on Saturday, was amazing. Lorna Seilstad joined me (that's us at left) and we signed books all day on Saturday and on Sunday from 11:00 until 4:30. Two of Lorna’s friends from Council Bluffs came for Oktoberfest and we all went to dinner at a restaurant in Marengo since the restaurants in Amana were very busy. The company was great and the food was delicious.

Now for the bad: After finishing on Sunday, we loaded the car and were a short distance from Grinnell, Iowa when the sensor on the car told us the tire pressure was low in the right front tire. The town of Grinnell is only about 50 miles from Amana, so we really hadn’t even gotten a good start on our trip home. At the Grinnell exit we pulled into a super service station where Lori laughingly told me she’d give me a lesson on how to put air in a tire. (I now know, but we’ll see if I can remember the next time I need to do it.) We were in the midst of the ‘lesson’ when a truck driver came over to check on us. He stooped down, looked at the tire and shook his head. “That tire has a bubble in it. You can’t go back out on the highway. It could blow at any time. You should check and see if Walmart has an automotive shop that can help you.”

On Sunday evening there’s not much hope of automotive help, but we made a limping run for Walmart. Unfortunately, the Walmart in Grinnell does not have an automotive shop. There wasn’t much choice but to remain an extra night and seek help on Monday morning. The tire went down a little more during the night, but after calling the local tire dealership, we limped off with visions of a new tire in our heads. Just an FYI about that picture above where I'm smiling while pointing at that donut on the car--I didn't feel quite as happy as I look.

Here’s the ugly: To my dismay, the only tire that would fit my car could only be found at the car dealership in Des Moines. What did that mean? Why, putting a donut on said vehicle and driving the back roads at 50 miles per hour to the car dealership where we waited for two hours to have a new tire placed on the car. About the picture above, I'm happy to have the donut off and the tire on, but as if to add insult to injury, the cost of that tire (which I am sure must be lined with gold) caused my purse to be a lot lighter. We waited two hours for the replacement, but on the up side, there was a Keurig coffee maker. So what did I choose for my flavor of choice? Why the DONUT brand, of course. Please note the shaky picture. I was truly in need of coffee after the "donut drive" to Des Moines.

The moral of this sad tale: Don’t buy a car until you check the availability of the tire size and cost of said tires.

Back to the Good: I am so thankful for God’s protection. We could have had a terrible accident if the tire had blown, but He was with us. I’m also thankful that we finally able located a new tire, that I had enough money to pay for said tire, and that we made it home without further mishap.

And just to show my heart is now in a good place, I’m going to give away a copy of A Patchwork Christmas nicely tucked into this cute cloth bag I purchased in Amana. The book fits into the bag for a perfect gift. If you’d like to be a winner, just leave a comment and I’ll announce the winner next Wednesday.

May you find joy as you travel life’s highway and give thanks for His protection. ~Judy