Vacation Installment # 2-The Zoo

We had more adventure than we bargained for on our number two adventure of our vacation. As I stated before we decided to do things within driving distance to our house while my hubby was off work this week, in order to save on hotel cost. Yesterday we did the Atlanta Zoo. It is a very nice zoo. We had a very good time here are some pictures and than following that I will explain why this trip turned out to be more of adventure than I want to repeat.....

Zander & Riley looking at the Elephant

Riley feeding the birds, Zander fed them too they had so many birds!

Zander with his favorite thing in the background a turtle

Zander & Riley outside the gorilla exhibit, the gorillas were so big, very neat to see



Here are some shots of just the animals

one of the gorillas

Giraffes

The Rhino

The Tiger

Here are some more of the kids & animals

Riley petting the panda through the glass-the pandas were so cute!

Zander & Riley on a Kamodo Dragon

Another shot of the pandas

Okay so now that I showed you just a small sampling of the part of the day that went great, let me tell you what happened on the way home...


Well we took our time after the zoo got dinner, went to Ikea all that went fine other than having to battle traffic in Atlanta at rush hour but no major issues.




We started heading home a little after 9p.m.
We got to where we were about 45 min or so from home and all the sudden the van started making this funny noise really loud. I didnt know what had happened so Matt pulled off the side of the road and saw that our back passenger tire was completely blown apart. So, there we are on the side of I-75 in the dark without a flashlight Matt trying to get the blown apart tire off and put the spare on. We have never had to use the spare of the jack in the van it took a little while to get everything out, Matt finally got the spare on, we were only one mile from an exit. Matt said the spare is losing air, but if we can just make it to a gas station I will pump it up and we will be okay getting home, and we can just deal with getting a new tire tomm. So spare on we try to get back onto the interstate. So, as soon as Matt gets the van up to about 55mph the spare blows so off we go again to the side of I-75. Now around here we would've known who to call to get it towed but we werent familiar with the area so Matt called 911 and asked them to send  a tow truck. In the meantime while we were standing on the side of I-75 waiting on a tow truck to come and assist us Matt called his mom who lives across the street from us and asked her to please come get us. She left and was on her way but like I said before we are about 45 min away from home or so. So, the tow truck pulls up and says "did you need a tire changed" matt said no I can change a tire the problem is I dont have another tire to put on it, I have already gone through two...we need you to tow it to for us...he said well I already have a car I am towing right now I will have to go drop it off and come back for the van. We are thinking great so we are just stuck here for 40 min or so on the side of the interstate. However, the man was nice enough to let us ride in his big rig to a few exits closer to home and dropped us off at a quick trip gas station to wait for Matt's mom to arrive. He went back for the van later and towed it to a place that would replace the tire. So, Matt's mom finally arrived and we got to go home. It was WAY more adventure than I ever want to have again. Between the cars and trucks flying by us on I-75 to dealing with the kids who were scared out of their minds (I was too lol), to having to fit four people and two bags with everything that we had of value in the van into a truck meant for two people at the most, we had one heck of a night.


Here's how I see it though. I can look at this as man, what a bummer, this just stinks, or I can look at it as Thank the Lord that....we didnt wreck when our tire blew, no one hit our van parked on the side of the interstate, the trucker didnt leave us but took us somewhere safe to wait for a ride, and my mother in law drove 40 min or so to come pick us up. All these things are things that couldve went much worse. Not to mention the fact that we were not in downtown atlanta when we had a blow out and it wasnt raining as it was earlier in the day. 
Long story short about the tire we got it fixed. We are going to have to take it tomm morning and get the tires balanced and than we should be off to adventure number 3 the aquarium up in Pigeon Forge. 
I will be praying for a less eventful trip tomm!
God Bless!!!