Well today we started out on an adventure to the other side of the Island. With the island only being 35 miles by 100 miles "the other side" is relatively not that far away. Except with mountains in the way, getting there is not a direct route. I was very excited because we were going to one of my favorite parks on the island. Guajataca. The view from there is amazing. The ocean is so blue and the cliffs so pretty. Plus the park has some awesome almond trees that are so much fun to climb. So we set out and I told the boys we were going on an adventure. Well it definitely turned out to be one. About half way there we heard the dreaded.... thump thump thump. While a car next to us started to point to our back tire. YEP a flat tire. Most "normal" people probably dread changing a flat tire. I not being a "normal" person gets an adrenaline rush while changing a tire. Maybe it is because all those years in Zambia, with all those many many many many flat tires we had, my dad always made sure I knew how to change a flat. Mom would always make the comment "Well here's one more adventure!" and my dad would usually comment back "these ARE NOT the adventures I want to have" or something to that effect. But with each tire change I learned the importance of knowing where your jack is? Where to place it? Where is your spare? How do you get it down? Most of the time in Zambia, changing tires was not as easy as today. One time I remember dad returning from a trip out to one of his churches that was a few hours away. When he didn't return by time we were expecting him to be home, we began to get worried. After darkness settled in he drove in with a few of our other pastors that went with him. Come to find out he had about 7 flats that day! (this was before tubeless tires were in Zambia) Do you know what that means? With one spare tire, that means he had to take the flat tire off the truck, take the tire off the rim, take the tube out of the tire, get out the rubber patches and glue to repair the tube, put it back inside the tire, put it back on the rim, put the rim back on the truck and air it up and pray that the patch holds! And he did that seven times! In one day! No wonder he looked like he was worn out when he got back! But thanks to my dad, I know how to change flats on tube tires and tubeless tires! I don't know why I get excited about changing tires but you can blame it on my dad, or you can just take me on road trips in case you have a flat tire! Though I will say I prefer to change tires on BIG trucks as opposed to little cars, which I have done before too! Today, however, we had it easy. After the man in the car pointed at our tires, who he turned out to be a policeman just getting off duty. He called the highway maintenance man. In Puerto Rico, all the highways are toll roads and with those tolls comes the free help. These guys are called to help change tires, fix engines or call tow trucks if needed. How nice! We had barely parked on the side of the road when he showed up. While Polo and I got the tire out from under the truck, this guy had got his giant hydraulic floor jack(if you don't know what this is, it is a giant jack that can lift your car really easy!) and his electric lug nut remover(if you don't know what this is, it is a awesome machine that unscrews the nuts that are holding your tire on the car. Electric ones cut the time to just a few seconds instead of minutes that it could take) We got the spare tire down, he got the flat tire off, we switched, he put the spare tire on while we put the flat tire back under the car. This seriously was the FASTEST tire change I have ever done. 10 minutes MAX! Now that is what I call changing a tire! Keith I think I am going to invest in a electric lug nut remover for our truck. =) And I am going to start carrying our floor jack in the truck! =) Never know when we might need it! hehee. It was a grand adventure. The boys thought it fun going up and down with the jack. Come to think of it, I always enjoyed riding the truck up and down when I was little too!
Isaiah kept saying "Oh No we have flat tire" but I kept telling them, "this is just another adventure!"Guess my mom has rubbed off on me a little!
My tire hands! Are we having fun yet?
After our Tire Adventure, we headed to Guajataca for our next adventure.Where the views are so pretty! We hiked around the park trails and had fun. The boys enjoyed climbing all the cool almond trees. Check out these pictures!
I could stand here all day
Kaden and Keniel
Me and my boys
On our hike, all these rocks in front of us had all kinds of fossils in them, which Kaden had fun finding.
Abuelo and his boys
Giving the boys a climbing lesson
My big monkey in the tree
He is getting so big!
My little monkey climbing a tree
Having a snack
I wonder where my kids get their climbing ability from?
2 little monkeys climbing in the tree
Monkey Cousins
What brother does, little brother has to do too, with a little help from Abu
After time in the park, we decided not to continue to travel around the island which was our original plan, due to the fact that we had no spare tire. So we headed back home. Traffic was heavy because it was 5 pm and everyone was getting out of work. Plus there was heavy rain going on in town which causes issues. But even with the slower drive we had an adventure chasing rainbows. We followed one for a LONG time. I told the boys that if we caught it, we would have to dig up the treasure at the end of it. So we chased it and chased it, but we never caught it but it did give us a lot of entertainment! It was such a pretty one too!
You could see the whole thing, it was BIG, but my Ipod couldn't catch the whole thing
"Well here's to one more adventure." Glad life can be an adventure! Even the not so fun ones.
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