In spite of the dreadful sensory overload and abundance of predators in the Wilderness Room, I slept like a baby. My car was nice and shiny after the car wash the night before so I loaded her up and headed out. When I got to the Mackinaw bridge I paid the toll for the minivan behind me in a futile attempt to earn some good karma. They sped up to wave and honk and seemed super appreciative, so that was worthwhile!

I jumped off the freeway and took some random back roads to get to M119 otherwise known as the Tunnel of Trees.

When I left the Tunnel of Trees I stopped to look for more sites of interest on my way to Ludington and settled on an urban farm that makes homemade jam.

The road got wider and the speed limit increased. I passed through a few towns and after I passed Petoskey I began hauling ass. There’s a chance I was doing 75 when I heard a loud explosion and my steering started pulling hard to the left. I pulled off and realized I’d just suffered a catastrophic blowout. I jumped out and my front drivers side tire was completely flat. Like so flat that not a breath of air remained in my “run flat” tire!

I don’t think you are supposed to run on a run flat that was that flat so I called AAA for a tow. She asked me where I was going to go so while we were talking I started looking for towns with tire shops in the area. Petoskey was the closest town even though I’d passed it about 10 miles back. While I waited for the tow truck I started calling tire shops. Since it was Sunday, none of them were open. I finally got ahold of the tire center in the Walmart but her news was not great. She didn’t have any tires that would fit my MINI and suggested I might have to wait for Belle Tires to open. Meanwhile the tow truck driver called and said he was only 5 minutes away (which was much sooner than the AAA lady had told me to expect)!

The lady at Walmart told me there was a Holiday Inn Express just down the road from Belle Tires so I panicked and booked a room there. When the tow truck driver showed up, it didn’t take him long to load up my car and I hopped in the cab for the ride to the hotel.

Along the way, the driver told me I couldn’t be stuck in a nicer town. He was worried I wouldn’t be able to see much of it so he offered to let me drive his car around while I was in town. He told me the hotel had a free limo service that could take me to the casino and suggested I spend some time there as well.

As we drove in to town we passed a couple of closed tire shops and a Hampton Inn where I could have stayed to work on cementing my 2022 status. The Holiday Inn Express is perched on top of a hill with a magnificent view and charming balconies and suddenly things didn’t seem so bad! I imagined having my morning coffee on the balcony overlooking the entire valley and couldn’t wait to get inside! The driver unhooked my MINI and told me to give him a call when I needed the tow to the tire shop.

When I entered the hotel I was told they’d been sold out the night before and I’d actually booked their last available room. She said she couldn’t do any early checkins and suggested I call a taxi and go somewhere else to wait. I said I could just sit on the patio until something became available and rolled my bags out there. While I was waiting I researched more tire shops, got my points back for the room in Luddington and found out my ferry ticket was non refundable. I waited about an hour and since it was a little chilly I decided to move into the lobby. They must not have liked that because it wasn’t long after that they found me a room!

The room turned out to be the accessible room, which always makes me feel bad because someone else might actually need it! Also, it was on the ground floor right with a view of the limo in the parking lot.

The room only had a broken easy chair and a desk chair so I sat on the bed. The next thing I knew, two hours had passed and I was feeling much more rested! I thought about going to the casino but I weighed that against the possible cost of my new tires and an extended stay at the Holiday Inn and decided to have Doordash bring me a sandwich instead!

I passed some time with my bullet journal and then even did a little work. The two truck driver called me up to make sure I was doing OK and see if I’d been lucky at the casino. He seemed disappointed that I hadn’t gone out. Not long after that the front desk called me. They said another guest had noticed my car had a flat and wanted to let me know, which was super sweet! I explained that was why I was here and I would probably be extending my stay until the tire shop opened up on Tuesday.

A little while later the front desk called again. He said he had asked around there was a maintenance guy named Brent who had plugged tires before. He told me to come to the front desk at 9am and ask for him, that he would take a look at my tire and see if he could plug it. I didn’t have the heart to tell him there was probably no way that was going to work on my run flat that had suffered a catastrophic failure!

Later when I went out to drop off my breakfast request, the front desk guy told me about a time he had a flat but didn’t know what to do so he gunned it and drove home anyway. He recommended the shop that had come out and fixed his tire for him, which sadly will also be closed until Tuesday.

I went back to my room and turned on Twitch to watch DJ Iamelectro’s Yacht Rock Sunday and cheer myself up! I mean if Yacht Rock can’t lift your spirits what can? Besides the fudge I’d purchased for the pod which also helped!