Oh, Lexus!

So, one day, in the middle of May, a few of us headed out to Kuna after a neat little Steelheads hockey game to blow some bombs up. We got there at about 12am. The bomb of choice was a CO2 bomb. Which needed a CO2 cartridge and a 1-liter bottle of water (I learned the hard way). We brought a push pin to puncture a hole in the CO2 cartridge, but low and behold, it didn't work. After hours and hours of trying to get a hole in the CO2 cartridge, (...and by hours and hours, I mean, like, 30 minutes...) we decided to give up and go home. On our way to turn around, we noticed that we had an extremely flat tire. As you can see. It took all of us, except for Tom, to try and change it. We got the car jacked up and started to loosen the lug nuts, only to have the car tip and almost fall. So we moved the car to a more level spot in the road. The only problem with that is the dirt was a lot softer there so the jack just got driven into the ground more than jacking the car, and once again, it started to tip. Let me tell you...you would think that you would have nothing useful in your car after you had just cleaned it out...but in a situation like that, McGyver skills really start to kick in. Someone had the brilliant idea to take one of the floor mats out of the Lexus and lay it down under the jack so it would have more stability, and then we decided to loosen the lugs first, and then jack the car up. Seriously, when you get a car full of 6 people, the possibilities are endless. Ideas were flying left and right. It was tremendous. So, Wifey went around, loosening the lug nuts, and then she got to the special one. See, Lexus thinks their cars are so amazingly nice that people will want to steal their tires, so they put one locking lug nut on them. Which I can see is useful in a ghetto somewhere in Chicago, or something, but this is Boise, people! Come on! The key that goes to the locking lug nut would not work. Come to find out, the grooves in the lug were stripped, and the key wasn't that well off either. "We're not gonna get home til like 6 in the morning." -Celia the Wise.

"You drove a LEXUS to Kuna CAVES?!"

After literally hours of trying, we still could not get this thing off! Me, being the resourceful one I am, decide to call Bro. Littledike, who lives in Kuna, for some help. Keep in mind, this is at 2:30 on a Sunday morning. He didn't answer and so then I tried Andy Bailey, hoping against hope that he would finally decide to not screen my calls and answer. No such luck. I called five times, nothing. So Logan called her dad (Jim) and gave him the rundown of the evening. While she was on the phone with him, I remembered, my friend Zane has a tow truck! It's a long shot, but I wondered if he could get it back to where we were to rescue us. I called him, and it was as though he answered and then just hung up. So I tried again, and his phone was off. Tried a third time, and same thing. I was a little frustrated. (Come to find out, about 2 hours previous, he had quit his job, so no more tow truck!) Jim came to the rescue. Logan and Tyler thought it would be a pretty good idea to walk back to the road and meet Jim there so he could find us. Good thing they did, because he said he would have been completely lost if they hadn't. He brought an array of tools to try and get this lug nut off, but it would not budge. So, he decided the only option left was to go back home and get a trailer. Luckily he doesn't live THAT far away from where we were...we sent Tom and Carrie with him to help him hook it up. While we waited, Celia, Tyler, Logan, and I were sitting in Lexi just chatting and Celia says "I found a screwdriver in the back while I was looking for things to help with the tire. Do you want to try the bomb again?" HELL YEAH! We piled out of the car, got the stuff ready, put the bottle a safe distance from the car, and tried to put a hole in the cartridge. I had made a pretty good dent in the top and was trying to get the rest of the way through with a pair of scissors from the First Aid Kit (we were so lucky to have) and Tyler was telling me how he thought it would be a good idea and softly hit the scissors so they would put a hole in the cartridge, I was so focused on him talking to me, that when the scissors broke through the aluminum barrier, I fruck out! I ran to the bottle, throwing the scissors in the process, trying to keep the CO2 from leaking (mistake). I dropped the the cartridge into the bottle, and with shaking hands, tried to screw the cap back on. My adrenaline was pumping and I got frustrated, picked the bottle up, and chucked it. Walked back to the car and realized that I had lost the scissors. Everyone was laughing at my freak out...that is until I told them "Guys, I think I threw the scissors..." Good thing we had a flashlight with us, and good thing Logan is like a bloodhound. She found them, and we were off for a second try. This time we decided to keep the bottle with us, and then throw it after the cap was on...

"OH SH**!!!!"

I'm working on the next cartridge, fully focused this time. I get a hole in it, put it in the bottle, Logan caps it, and I run it...only one problem. When I went to throw it, I did quite the opposite, and I ended up dropping it right there. Ten feet from the car. I was freaking out, again. I'd never done this before so I wasn't sure what to expect from the reaction time of this bomb. I yelled an obscenity, and ran for cover, up, and around the car. Oh, hello, lava rock! I tripped, and totally ate it! *Cue next obscenity. I ripped open my shin just below my knee and landed in the ONLY freaking thorn bush around! Good thing my pain receptors were covered up by adrenaline and endorphins, because I did not feel any of it. As I sat there hyperventilating, Tyler was standing over me, trying to get me to stand up, pulling on my arm saying "Come on, get up!" I yelled at him. He took one look at my knee and said "Uh, guys! Come here, we need the First Aid kit." Logan and Celia were on the other side of the car yelling "Laura, come here!" and I yelled back, "I can't!" then they came over, took a look at me and immediately went to action. Celia grabbed the First Aid and a bottle of water (which we had for the bombs)and my nurse, Logan, cleaned and bandaged me up, I didn't even cry! Meanwhile, I'm worried about the bomb. I didn't want it to explode while we were sitting there, but we were all curious as to why it hadn't gone off yet, so Tyler started throwing rocks at it. All they did was bounce off and make a really cool noise. When we decided that was enough fun for the night, we got back in the car and waited for Jim, Carrie, (not to be confused with Jim Carrey) and Tom to get back. Talking about the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere so if some creeper happened upon us and murdered us all, no one would know. Welcome, Paranoid Laura. I was not at ease, and to top it off, I was started to get feeling back in my knee. It was throbbing.

The Third Incident...

We were convinced that after all of this had happened that there was one more incident that awaited us, because they always come in threes. First was the tire, next was the knee, and last...well, we were afraid to find out what was going to happen next. It was almost 4 by this time and it seemed as though Jim was taking forever, just then, I got a text from Carrie that said "a train at 4 in the morning? really?!" Apparently said train was really long too, so they were there for a good time before being able to cross the tracks. When they finally got there, it took a while to get the car loaded onto the trailer, but they did it! We were out of there by about 4:30 am. It took a while to get back to Logan's house, but when we finally did, we piled up in their suburban, got all comfy coze, and then found out the car was out of gas. REALLY MOM?! YOU DIDN'T FILL IT UP ON YOUR WAY PASSED THE MAVERIK?!! So, the 6 of us hopped into Logan's Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. Tight squeeze, and people sitting laps. I got home at about 5:30, which means everyone else got home around 6. Nice call Celia!

The Nicest Man Ever

While the rest of us were sleeping and then churching it up, Logan's dear dad stayed up working on Celia's tire. He couldn't get the thing off to save his life. So, finally, he asked his neighbor who has a ratchet gun, for help. It took about 700 libbies of pressure to get that one lug nut off! Jim didn't get to sleep until 2 that afternoon. Seriously, the best example of service for someone you don't even know. Now, $900 and 4 new tires later, the Lexus is running good!

Moral of the story:

When you have a bad feeling about going somewhere, listen to it...it will probably save you a lot of pain, suffering, and money.