2 1/2 Hours In Tonkawa, OK
Aaron decided yesterday that he wanted to go and get the scooter so he took off around 3 and headed to OKC. Got there just fine and had a lovely time with my sister, Bri and Em overnight. (Thanks for keeping him, by the way. And thanks to Em for giving him the “grammy” treatment.)
He headed out to pick it up this morning, called me to tell me how wonderful it is, proceeded to tell me about all of the cool things I can add to it now that it’s mine, (mirrors) and headed home at about 9.
About an hour out of OKC, he stopped because he thought he had a flat on the trailer. He asked a Scottish Frito Lay truck driver if he had an air pump, but he didn’t. He replied, “Nurmuhly Ah doo, but naht tuhdayah.” So, Aaron had to continue to drive on the flat until he got to an exit, where he stopped and tried to fill it up.
Well, turns out it wasn’t a flat. (He should be so lucky.) The wheel had locked up and he had dragged the tire for who knows how long and had WORN AWAY two inches of the tire! (I saw a picture and it looked like a pretty clean crew cut.) So, he pulls off and talks to some folks (he’s still in OK at this point, so “folks” is appropriate) and they tell him to call the tire store in Tonkawa. He calls and they send a guy out to help him. Picture this…they load the trailer, with the scooter still on it, onto another flatbed trailer and head out to see if they can get a new tire for it.
So, they’re going down the highway with the flatbed trailer hauling the trailer hauling the scooter and they finally arrive in Tonkawa. Aaron is looking for the tire shop, since he’s following the truck, when they finally arrive at Harris Furniture and Tire. Um, yeah, I did say Harris FURNITURE and TIRE. You know…fries and ketchup, beans and franks, furniture and tires. Duh.
Now, I’m from a small town in Kansas, so I know that it’s out of necessity, because not everyone has a Wal-Mart (gasp!), but it just seemed like a REALLY odd pairing. However, I can not deny that I would like to be able to go through drive-through at McDonald’s and pick up my most favorite ice cream cone AND order a new pair of shoes at the SAME time. I like both ice cream cones and shoes and, in my mind, they go together just as well as furniture and tires. I would feel like such a lucky girl. On that note, I wonder if the people of Tonkawa realize how lucky they really are to have such convenient, yet still odd, one-stop shopping, or if they’ve started to take it for granted already. You just can’t beat going to the tire store and being able to shop while waiting for the tires to be put on. After all, it is a boring wait. With all that time to kill, they have hours to make a decision about which washing machine they want and they can feel good about the decision they made – not rushed or anything. And THEN, once the tires are on, they can haul it home themselves and save on delivery charges. Perhaps it is marketing genius. I just don’t know. But somehow I don’t think McDonald’s is going to go into the shoe business. (Though now I really wish they would.)
At any rate, thank you Brent, at Harris Furniture and Tire for selling Aaron a new tire so that he could get home. I am glad your Furniture/Tire operation was available and able to fix the problem.
Oh, and by the way, A got home around 5.30. It was a long day, but I have my scooter.
Now I have to learn how to ride the darn thing.
