There's a big hole in the tire

Memory - Crater Lake

Early in our relationship, Michael & I started road-tripping. We both enjoy the open road and find you see so much of the world while exploring the roads throughout the countryside. Our first weekend together was spent driving the North Cascades Loop. A few weeks later we drove to Alaska & back in three days - but that's another story. And that is in fact one of the things we collect while on road trips - stories.

This story begins on a Labor Day weekend. We had 3 days to play and the open road before us. The Oregon Coast sounded like a good place to head, but wait, I had never been to Crater Lake before and Michael hadn't been there for years. We had the time - no schedule actually - and turned off the highway to drive into the South Cascades towards this wonder created by nature.

As we drove along the road around the crater, oohing and aahing at the scenery, Michael forgot to mind where he was going and for a brief second drove off the road. He quickly recovered but the damage was already done - volcanic rocks are very sharp and they cut right through the tire. The sun was setting and I wanted to be up at the overlook for the color show. Michael pulled out the donut tire and jack while I grabbed the dog and camera to head up the road to the overlook, hopefully making it before sunset.

I made it and just as the sun was setting, so did Michael. But there was another problem - the donut tire had very little air in it. The best wee could do was drive 5 miles an hour around the rest of the crater and hope , just hope, that the gas station at the park village had air. Time and dark scenery seemed to go on forever. We were saved at the park village as they did have air, plus we were able to get sandwich fixin's for the trip to Medford. Hopefully we could get our tire fixed there.

Ever try and get a tire fixed in a smallish town on a Sunday? Forget it. We had to continue the rest of our road-trip on the donut. Stay tuned for that great story.