two flats and a ditch later...

well, don't know about everyone else, but i had kind of an eventful vacation. first off, 300 feet or so from missouri our tire blows. so we (me and brian) pull over, change the tire in the dark and cold, and continue on. after a bit (now inside missouri) we discover there's something wrong with the spare. so we pull into a gas station for air, and their air pump is broken. so this lady who lives nearby offers to help us since the nearest gas station is several miles away and we might not make it. her husband tries to fill our tire with their air compressor and discovers that the spare has a hole. long story short, we bought their spare tire from them and drove home.

friday, i go to the city museum and get hugged by this random guy who thinks i'm someone else. after that i spend about an hour in the caves wondering where everyone is. sunday, extended family confuses me with a)my brother's fiancee and b)an exchange student (presumably the one that stayed with us two years ago).

then we head back. and an hour or so from grinnell we drive off the road. we came upon a ramp with a sharp curve, and it was dark and wet, and the driver had been driving for a long time so was tired, and we went off the road down the hill. it was one of those areas that made kind of a downward triangle of the land, and we were near the corner, so it was bumpy and scary but no one got hurt (well, except the car). if we had been further into the curve and gone down the steeper part, it would have been a lot more dangerous. as it was we just had to wait for the cops and the tow truck to come, then the cops drove us (toting our stuff, including illegal (in iowa) fireworks) to mcdonalds to wait for a friend from grinnell to pick us up.

it's good to not have to drive anywhere else for a long time.