Vacation: Pt. 4- the worst is over...right?!

the boys in front of the awesome super hero display at Smoky Mountain Knife Works

still puny-feeling Rach with Brad and one of his cool souvenirs

Trent with the bear he bought

our FLAT (as a pancacke) tire

Pit Crew on the side of the interstate in VA

We checked out of our smelly room and left Pigeon Forge on Friday morning. Rach was finally feeling like her old self again. :) We were headed to Lynchburg to see our oldest and dearest friends, the Greens, and we were excited! We knew things couldn't get any worse than vomit in a hotel room...right??!!

Our first stop was in Sevierville at the Smoky Mountain Knife Works store. That place is huge and filled with millions of different kinds of knives...many for sale and many just for display. They also have water features with indian scenes, hunting scenes, etc... You could spend about 2 hours JUST looking around in there. The kids all found souvenirs to purchase with their remaining spending money. Brad was most excited to pick out his first knife, a swiss army knife. Nick has discussed this with him for quite some time and he is aware of the care and safety one must use when handling/owning a knife. Brad is taking his new knife responsibility very seriously. He keeps it on Nick's dresser, so that a curious Trenty doesn't accidentally get a hold of it. SMKW also has a huge super hero section, so it was fun looking at all the super heroes on sale and on display. Brad kept referring to this store as the Smoky Mountain Pocket Knife store, which Nick and I thought was so cute. He knew that was what he might purchase there, so it made perfect sense! :)

After our stop in Sevierville, we hit the road to head to VA. We had a nice, pleasant ride. The views were spectacular! The leaves were changing, the homes were beautiful, and for about 2 hours, the main things that came out of mine and Nick's mouths were: "oh wow, look at that!" and "oooohh! Pretty!!!". We stopped for a quick lunch at a Chick fil a and then got back on the interstate. All of a sudden, we hear a horrible noise and our tire sensor goes off. Nick pulls over immediately and we know that we have a flat tire.

It's 39 degrees, we're on the shoulder of a busy Interstate, trucks and cars are whizzing past us and we have a FLAT-as-a-PANCAKE tire. We were scared! The kids started to get upset. Nick was frantically throwing all of our luggage out of the back of the car and onto the grass so we could get to the jack that was hidden next to Brad's seat. I told the kids we were okay and not to worry (even though I felt like crying too). Brad was the calmest one...comforting a crying Trent and Rachel. I tried to help Nick by just standing behind the car so I was visible to approaching cars. Thankfully, we did have a good-never before used- spare tire. Nick was able to get the tire off, new tire on and everything put back in remarkable Nascar pit-crew time. We had one kind Asian man who stopped to offer assistance. He made sure our tire was on before he drove off. (Thank you kind person!!)

As soon as the tire was back on, we threw the luggage back in, buckled everyone up and drove to the nearest gas station to put some air in our spare tire. Unfortunately, the rest of the ride to Lynchburg wasn't very relaxing. The thought of further car issues or another flat tire (with no spare) was just too much to make my poor sweet husband feel secure.

(To Be Continued...)