Mar 27th, 2023 Monday Sunny
Over the spring break, my husband and I took a road trip along the Mississippi river, from Dubuque all the way down to New Orleans.
The river view was serene and calming. The drive was scenic and pleasant for the most part. There was little traffic – the Great River Road is by no means a fast route, so most travelers in a rush choose the interstate instead. Lucky for us – we often felt that we had the road all to ourselves 🙂
But this luck eventually backfired. On the evening of the third day, we visited Memphis and the “hometown of blues” – Beale Street. After taking photos with the Elvis Presley statue, we picked up some fried chicken for dinner. Reluctant to dine in the packed diner, we drove to a Kroger’s parking lot and started digging in. A little too spicy to my liking but otherwise not bad. Licking his fingers clean, my husband continued to drive while I took my time to savor more chicken.
Just as we were about to pass through Clarksdale, Mississippi, a small city of less than 15000 people, my husband got confused about the road conditions, and made a sudden turn onto the shoulder of the road. At that moment, the front wheel on the driver’s side scraped the curb. We were running low on gas, so we pushed forward, eventually arriving at a gas station on the south of Clarksdale. Tank filled, ready to go?
Well, that was when we realized that, to our dismay, the rental car got a flat tire.
“So stupid! That was all my fault! Now our vacation is ruined.” my husband yelled in a disgruntled voice.
“The vacation is only ruined if you think so.” Thought I in my head. Refrained from blaming him since that would definitely NOT make the situation better, I suggested trying to change the tire.
Of course, the rental car came with a spare tire, but the tiny wrench in the tool kit was useless in unscrewing the flat tire. We both tried all means, to no avail. Unwillingly, my husband called roadside assistance.
Rental car roadside assistance is not covered by our car insurance, so a round of negotiating and searching for better (i.e. cheaper) alternatives ensued. Eventually, a service provider agreed to come rescue us. It was almost midnight, and he was still an hour away (probably coming from Memphis) since we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
The one-hour wait felt like forever, and neither of us could really rest. I solved matchstick puzzles to kill time. The hotel in Greenville, Mississippi, technically only an hour away, seemed so far from reach.
In the end, the spare tire was put on, and we turtled on the interstate highway at 50 miles per hour (we were not supposed to drive on the spare tire above that speed). By the time we pulled into the parking lot of our hotel, it was 3am.
Nevertheless, our hotel room was cute with a flair of southern hospitality. It even had a large two-person bathtub. What a shame we would not be able to enjoy that!
Anyway, the bed that I had been craving for was finally in front of me. The day certainly could have gone better in many ways, yet we were safe in a warm room now. We did not argue or spend unnecessary energy fighting with each other. We still had many fun things to explore in the next few days of our vacation. Now all we need to do is sleep soundly.
Good night.