The Drive Home

It started well enough. We (the boys, animals & I) left my parents house before 6am on Monday. That afternoon we were in Arizona, approaching Phoenix. I had planned to stop east of Phoenix for the night, to avoid the Phoenix morning traffic. I was feeling good, making great time, when all of sudden, BLAM!Down goes a tire. I'll tell you nothing will freak you out more when the tire on your full packed Suburban blows out in the middle of the Arizona desert. And of course you have 2 under 6 boys, a dog, and cat in the truck as well. Then you realize you don't have the doohickey to get the spare tire out from under the truck.
Well, I called my car insurance people, who sent a guy to change the tire. He didn't have a spare doohickey to get the spare out or a tow truck, so I had to call the insurance again to get a guy with a truck to tow my truck to a 24 tire place. By the time he got to us we had been waiting 2 hours. Then we had to drive and hour west to the tire place. When we got there, the tire guy said he couldn't get the spare out either, but he did have a nice used tire he could put on my rim. So 45 minutes and $60 later, we were back on the road to Phoenix again. At 8:30pm. Almost 4 hours later, and 75 miles west of where I had been.
During my wait for the dual tow guys, I figured that I would not be getting to the hotel I was planning on. After multiple phone calls and many route plannings on my Tom Tom (thanks Sis) I had a new hotel on the west side of Phoenix. Which meant I'd have to go through the Phoenix morning traffic. Oh well, I needed sleep.
I got up early on Tuesday, 5am to be exact. I got the truck loaded, animals loaded, kids loaded, checked out, and started the journey east. Then I heard on the radio that a big rig loaded with carpet strips (the wooden sticks with nails) had overturned near downtown and in my path. I was not going to lose another tire. I had to find a different way through Phoenix. After getting off the freeway the Tom Tom went to work. I got through Phoenix in about an hour, not good, but not horrible.
After that, it was uneventful. Tuesday night we ended up in Fort Stockton, TX. One tip, don't get Chinese food in Fort Stockton, TX. We got through San Antonio at the perfect time. After rush hour. After San Antonio, I can drive home easily. We got home about 2:30pm. I passed out around 9pm, after kiddo baths. I needed sleep. I had to be up at 6am to get Big Kid up for school Thursday.
At least life is getting back to normal.