"Like a good neighbor..."

"... State Farm is there!" 

I found out first hand that State Farm (insurance company) is a good neighbor, but singing the jingle in the car will not make them appear faster. (International friends, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, look up the commercials on youtube. They're ridiculous!)  They are still amazingly helpful!

No War and Peace readalong update this week because all my weekend reading time was taken up by 14 hours (you read that right) of driving (roundtrip) for a family reunion + 4 HOURS stranded on the highway with my sister and this shredded tire to the left!

We were driving on I-294N, one of the busiest highways connecting the northwest Chicago suburbs when we heard a thunderous clunking noise and smelled the stench of burning rubber.  We looked right and left, but the other cars didn't seem to be in trouble.  It took a second to realize that it was coming from us, another second to panic, and a few more seconds to wobble over onto the shoulder of the road. I popped open the hood so we could be more easily spotted as a "vehicle in distress", dialed for roadside assistance, and waited for state patrol and/or mechanics to come.  I had told them our location on the highway by the mile marker I spotted up ahead and left them my number.  When I hung up, I noticed that my battery was down to 10% so that added a little more stress to the situation!

However, my sister and I kept calm during our wait by listing our blessings.  Praise the Lord:

• ... because it was 2:35PM and not 2:35AM.
• ... because we were not injured.
• ....because we have phones.
• ... because my phone lasted JUST long enough to make the distress call.
• ... because the weather was nice and we didn't have to worry about hypothermia.
• ... because we were on a busy highway and not in the middle of nowhere.
• ... because we have a God we can trust in.
• ... because we weren't too hungry so I didn't have to eat my sister's leg.

All's well that ends well!  After all, we finally made it to our Aunt's house and got to eat this culinary masterpiece! Whew - what a weekend.  I'm going to hold off on road trips for a while :)

Photo cred: my cousin Hana