Back in town

We're back at school now. Christmas break was great. This was our first Christmas together and it was great to celebrate with both of out families. We are both from Chicago, and our families live fairly close to each other, so it wasn't hard to spend a good amount of time with both of them. We had a wonderful time. It was great to break piñatas, eat pie, and most of all be with family for the holidays. I think the best thing we have is our families.

Our trip back to school was interesting. We drove across I80 and near Des Moines, Iowa, one of the tires exploded. This was a new experience for me. We got off the road quickly and got out to fix the tire. We were driving back in the car my brother-in-law's parents let him use (him and I go to the same school) so he and I started to take everything out of the trunk to get the tire, and we discovered that the tire is underneath the car. After some further investigation, we discovered that we needed a special rod that comes with the car (but wasn't in this one) in order to release the tire. We tried several tow-truck companies and discovered that these rods aren't standard and therefore tow trucks don't carry them and can't help you. After quite some time, we were misinformed that Bosselman's truck stop could help us, and we were towed there. When we arrived, we found out they also didn't have that part, but they told us what tire to buy and said that if we bought it, they'd put it on for us. We were then towed to Walmart and back; we got the tire and we paid Bosselman's to change it for us. To our great relief, this only cost (roughly) $200. We lost 5 hours of time and ended up driving from 5:30 am to 11:30 pm the following day, but we were back for classes. I guess if this ever happens to us again, we'll have a better idea of what to do. Here's a picture of us getting towed away: