Adjusters, Estimates, and Tires, Oh My!

There we were, Thomas, Logan, Dylan and I driving home from Preston in a hurry to pick up Ethan from a birthday party. Cruising along the interstate without a worry when..........horrible noise, slight shaking of the car, tire tread flying from behind my vehicle.

Slightly rattled, I pulled over to check out the damage and, much to my surprise, found the tire still fully inflated but missing all the tread. At this point we are exactly between McCammon and Inkom - for those of you not from here, MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! - and pulled off on the shoulder with cars whizzing by at break neck speed.

I call Gary's cell phone and get his voice mail. Figuring he is already on his motorcycle on the way home, I call back immediately. I know if I keep calling back immediately, he will have to pull over and see what is going on. He answers on the second attempt with, "Is this an emergency?"

"Yes it is!" He hangs up with his other important call and comes to my rescue. I limp the car into Inkom and he meets me there to change the tire. It's then that I see the extent of the damage. The bumper is broken, the underside of the car in the wheel well is cracked, the wires for my tire indicator lights are hanging down.

Well, to make this long story short, I've gone in for my estimate, talked several times with my insurance agent and now I'm waiting for the claims division to call me back. $1600 worth of damage. We think the tire that blew was on the Firestone recall list from a few years ago but was put on my car anyway when they ruined my original tire trying to fix a flat. Let the paperwork begin.

It's a HUGE blessing it was on the back of the car and that we didn't wreck.
We were definitely being looked over yesterday! By the way, does anyone know a good rental car company?