last weekend

So last weekend ended up costing me a little more than a weekend in South Dakota. When I decided to head down to SD, one of my plans was to have Melissa's dad help me change out the starter. The first thing we did was take the old one out, a task that took a whole 2 hours. The bolts were not only rusty, but were placed very precariously. We headed to the parts store and swapped out the starter for a new one ($130). Another hour later and she was in and running like a champ. Once that was done I figured why not change out the thermostat, something I've been meaning to do for almost a year. After a few bumps in the road and installing the thermostat twice, everything was done and the entire project only took just over 4 hours. That evening came along and we took the 'new' car out to Mel's grandparent’s house, a cool 45 minutes away. We arrived, at some home cooked food and before we knew, it was 10pm time to go. Well, on the drive back about 35 miles from Sioux Falls my car began to vibrate. Then it turned violent. I decided to pull over and as fate would have it, there was a rest stop 1/3 of a mile ahead. I pulled in and got out to inspect the car. As suspected, a flat tire in the rear of the car. I jacked the car up and went to grab the flat tire and my hand nearly got burned. The tire felt so hot like it could combust any moment! I pulled the tire off and to my surprise part of the tire had peeled away and left a nice strip of bald tire, and in spots, was worn all the way through the steel belt! Great. So I through on the spare tire and limped the rest of the way to SF. Sunday morning I woke and found a place that was open and bought two new tires. I had the two in the front of the car rotated to the back and the new tires placed up front. When it was all said and done, it was a cool $188 more out of pocket then planned.