Day Three. Tired.

I was still very tired, but I didn't want to impose on Trevor and I really did need to continue onward. If I knew what was to unfold during the next 24hrs, I would have turned tail right then and there and gone home.

The trip to Des Moines started out with some difficulty. I navigated rush hour and lots of construction delays with the help of my now-I-almost-like-it-GPS. After a few hours I was well clear of the City and headed towards the Iowa border.

It was raining and there was a lot of truck traffic. The once rolling hills of the east were long gone, replaced by stiffly flat farmland. There wasn't much to look at, so I focused on just getting past semi's that were kicking up so much water vapor I was worried about it effecting the car, so I tried to steer clear.

I stopped in DeKalb, IL. I wasn't feeling well and heck, it was called; The DeKalb Oasis, so I thought I'd stop for a bit. I hadn't had more than a yogurt smoothy and the car needed some gas. I decided not to get any food, but I did get more than I bargained for. I thought it would be a good idea to look at my tires. It was a good and bad idea.

The passenger rear tire had a small flap located near the rim. It didn't seem that deep or that dramatic, but I thought I should have it checked. Sam helped me find a tire place and I called them and told them I was on the way.

I didn't get to the place Sam suggested, because I saw a Tires Plus before I even hit Midas. I stopped in and talked to Nick. He looked at the tire and found a second small ripped flap and said the tire had to go.

Being that I was driving on low profile 17in tires, they weren't something that folks in DeKalb put on their cars. I couldn't just replace the rear two tires, I had to replace them ALL and get rid of the three, decent, remaining tires. I wasn't about to keep them in the car with me for the next two weeks.

What could I do? I talked to Gary at Newtown Car Care. I talked to Sam. There's not much to do, unless I wanted to order something from Tire Rack and stay in a DeKalb hotel until they showed up.

So I dropped 650. for new tires. At least they are all-weather so I can drive in whatever!

While I was waiting for my car, I struck up a conversation with a guy who was waiting for his truck to have some work done on it. He sets up post-printing equipment, like robots, collators, bindery. He travels all over the country, setting up equipment and said he hasn't seen any slow down in business, that the printers are buying millions of dollars of machinery. He did say the printers are losing some business-a sign of the times.

We traded funny stories and the two hours passed quickly. Both our cars were done at the same time and the two sales clerks were ringing up our invoices when one of them looked confused. He started to hand me a bill, then realized it belonged to the guy I was speaking with. Why the confusion?

We both have the same last name! Same spelling. Everything!

I said it must mean we were destined to meet for some reason and he agreed. He wished me safe travels.

If only he had been right.