Emma’s Explanations: Vacation edition

Stories by Writer
Emma Hiebert

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The Outlook – May 4, 2023
September 18, 2023
With+the+tire+removed%2C+it+is+possible+to+see+the+damaged+hub

Emma Hiebert

With the tire removed, it is possible to see the damaged hub

You know, sometimes things just really don’t go your way and I mean REALLY don’t go your way. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this vacation it’s that whatever happens will happen and you just have to go with the flow. My warm and sunny vacation ended with me standing in the O’Reilly’s parking lot in the painfully cold winter weather holding the paper towels as my dad fixed the car just well enough for us to finally make it home. 

Now let’s get back to the story. How did I get to this place you may ask? Well, our adventure begins on Friday, February 4 at 5 a.m. After a long night of packing and overthinking about packing, (Hey! How am I supposed to know exactly what I’m going to want to wear each day? It’s a valid issue) I awake to my alarm screaming at me to get out of my warm bed and get ready for my early morning adventure. I am ready to leave by the 6 o’clock deadline my mom set the night before, as I make my way up stairs I realize not a single one of my family members is ready to go. Typical, with my family everyone is always all over the place doing a million things at once; there’s no way we could leave our house on time EVER. We finally get on the road an hour later as I sit in the freezing car dreading the almost 20 hour drive to our destination.

Let’s fast forward a day or so to our next location. Cocoa Beach, Florida, the amount of excitement I had to finally be back at the ocean was insane, I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning as pure joy pulsed through my veins. My mom and I woke up early hoping for a pretty sunset as we took the morning stroll on the beach that we had been longing for since we stepped foot in the car, as we walked along the miles and miles of shoreline you’ll never guess what we saw… overcast. Really? I waited all year long to finally take a nice long walk on a warm beach with an incredible sunrise and all I get is chilly weather and clouds? 

Now we’re jumping to Super Bowl Sunday. After our long relaxing and exciting vacation full of warm weather and roller coaster rides we head back to the freezing Iowa temperatures. We are on route to be home at about 4 p.m. just in time to make it home to watch what is to be the best halftime show in years. I couldn’t wait to see Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre hit that stage and perform one of the best shows ever, but of course nothing really seems to go the way I plan it, EVER. We are about an hour and a half away from home when suddenly the car that has made it the entire trip decides to break down in the middle of nowhere. Yup. We’re stranded an hour away from home with no auto shop in sight. My dad gets out thinking it would be a quick and easy fix using the random tools in his work bag but arrives back in the car with the news that there was indeed much more damage than anticipated. Suddenly my dad decides that he is going to make a very dumb decision and drive the car with a tire that is inching closer and closer to falling off 13 miles to the nearest O’Reilly’s to fix it there. At this point I’m just going with it. My dad knows it’s definitely not the best idea but we do it anyway, and with the idea of centrifugal force, we arrive safely at the auto shop with even more damage than before.

We go inside, get all the parts and tools needed and start fixing the tire while every car lover in town comes by to scope out the damage and chat for a few before finally saying, “Hey man, good luck, have a good one.” No joke, I probably heard almost that exact phrase like five different times that night. Hours go by and it’s now dark out and we’re back to where the story started: me standing in the freezing cold, hand and toes completely numb with my dad to help him with whatever he may need. I hear my brother and sister in his warm heated car with “Hercules” blaring from the speaker. I look up to see my mom in our broken car, she points to me and then her phone as I see Eminem blowing the house down at the Super Bowl. Wow, I’m so jealous, they’re all living the life and I’m out here shivering as my bones ache from the cold. We got home late which was definitely not what I was hoping for and there ends my wild and adventurous vacation.