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Luna and I had to be up at 5:30 this morning to make it to a wedding for an old friend of hers and mine (hers for about 20 years, mine for about 9 now), Tracy. Granted, the wedding was for 11, and it was only about a 45 minute trip, but she had to be there to get ready with the other bridesmaids.

So, we're on the road after a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts for some go-juice when it happens. We're blazing down the highway in the left-hand lane (it had gone down to two lanes due to several on and off ramps in rapid succession) when we see a small black shape sitting on the road in front of us. Luna swerved as much as she could, but with a semi next to us that wasn't much at all. Seconds later there was a kachunk and a jolt followed by the familiar feeling of a flat rear tire on the passenger's side. Luna managed to keep things under control and we pulled over to the left shoulder.

As she calmed down, I hopped out to check things. I first saw the flat tire, not a total blowout, but it was obviously a big hole since there was absolutely NO AIR left in the tire at all. As I walked back to take a better look I noticed that the muffler and tailpipe were on the ground. I kinda wondered about this, so I took a look under the car to see what the hell else was up... and things became clear.

The object in the road was a cross type tire iron. Apparently the front passenger side tire struck one of the arms, making it stand up at an angle where it could impale the muffler and tear it lose from its mounts. Then it either twisted somehow to spear the tire or caused some jagged part of the muffler or mounts to slice the tire. (It could also have smacked the rim in such a manner as to unseat the tire, but I'd rather not contemplate that right now).

Better yet, either Luna was never given a jack with her spare or it was lost somewhere... not that changing the tire would have helped much, given that the muffler was now ******** first called Triple A to arrange a wrecker to come get us (on the bright side they only said that the max wait would be 45 minutes... much better than it could have been), then the Bride to warn her we might be late, and lastly her insurance to arrange for an adjuster to look at things ASAP.

The wrecker got there maybe about 30 minutes after we called, and we took her car back to the appartment (only about 6 miles) and tossed our stuff in my truck. On the way down I had to swerve to avoid a few 2x4s on the highway not more than 3 miles from where the tire iron had been. WTF?

Due to the confusion, we left a few items behind and had to hit a Payless Shoes and Wallmart to pick up a few items, but the wedding went well. The prime rib pieces were huge, the bar was open, and both Luna and I caught the Bouquet and Garter respectively, keeping our flawless records intact. Our rewards were a bottle of nice French sparkling wine each.

Since the reception ended earlier than we had expected, we managed to make it to the once a month RPG session at our friends' house that we had thought we'd miss this year.

And now I am back... what an adventure-filled goddamn day.