*FLAT TIRE*

This past weekend we had some of our family in town visiting!!! It was a whole lot of fun.... On Sunday afternoon we decided to take my cousin John from Georgia, on a ride in the dunes!!! What started out as a nice Sunday afternoon stroll on the beach ended up being really funny!!! We first were just driving along the ocean, and then my Dad decides that we need to go into the dunes!!! We were doing great just going up some lil hills and what not, then we get to competition hill, if you have never been to the Oceano Dunes, then you have no clue of what i am talking about.. Competition Hill has been popular for as many years as my Dad has been riding out there, and they started going out there when he was young! It is a huge dune, which as i understand is not as large as it once was, that people race up and do stupid things!!! Well my Dad thinks that we need to go up this farely large hill next to Competition Hill, granted its not as big as Competition Hill but for our truck that is fully loaded it is plenty large! So we make it up and over and then when we come down the back side of it we are ending up on this narrow passage way that had a "bowl" on each side. ( you also have to be very careful of these "bowls" when you are riding out there because you could roll your vehicle very easily!) As we are going down this hill we have to pick up speed because we need to get over a very large hill in front of us too..... Well needless to say my Dad guns it and we start going, well unnoticed by my father there was a huge rivet in the bottom of this "Valley" that we are trying to go through. I have never been in a truck where i was so concerned! We bottomed out, and as we did, a "wave" of sand came in the truck from the open window and bathed me and my cousin Jennifer in the back seat!!!! Bad idea in the first place to go up the "big" hill.... so my dad backs up and goes at it again! Same thing.... bottoms out and we are "stuck", well on the last time we tried to go up the hill again, so much sand got in between the bottom fog light and the ground that it completely sucked the light out of the hole and was lying on the ground!!!! So we sit there for a few minutes and decide what we are goin to do, mind you Jen and I are dressed to go eat in San Luis for lunch so we are not just in some beach clothes, the guys get out to air the tires down, and we are looking all around us and we are literally sitting in a valley, with these huge dunes all around us!!! FINALLY we get all the tires aired down and my dad goes to the right and in this "bowl" and around to get us out, but even he was a lil doubtful for a second!!!! So by this time i am telling me Dad, "Just go back to the beach!" and he keeps just going over hills and what not!!!! So we finally head back to the beach and go to air up our tires at this lil station that they have set up! The guys get out and my Dad starts airing them all up, well by the time he gets to the front passenger side all i hear is "that's flat!" And i am just thinking to myself, "Are you kiddin me!!!" so we attempt to get out of the other peoples way and change this tire!!!! Comedy central let me tell you! By this time Jen and i decide that we are going to get out and "check things out" Needless to say the whole tire was off the rim!!! So my Dad and Uncle Bill and John are tryin to find out how to get the spare tire down because its some special thing you have to do, after about 20 minutes of trying this really nice young guy comes over and shows them, apparently he had been doing the same thing on the side of the freeway one time for 4 hours before he figured it out!! Thank God he was there because we were already running late! So they get the flat tire off and put the spare on and finally we are on our way!!!! Needless to say i hope that i NEVER have to experience that again!!! But memories will last a lifetime!!!!Here is the flat tire!!!

!Here is John tryin to get the tire out!

and pointing at the tire!!!

the guys tryin to figure it out!!