Welp... that wasn't what we expected!

It is the first of September, the day we set out for Cincinnati! The plan was to leave after church and head for a college friend's home there.

The goal was to get out of the house by 2PM.... and we made it out at 2:02! 

But we didn't make it to Cincinnati! 

After driving into Illinois a ways we noticed that our vehicle was getting pretty loud. No big deal, we just turned the music up louder, but with time it began to have a little shimmy action going on. I stopped at a rest area to check the tires to see if they had any bulges in them. Nothing. We got back on the road, the noise was louder and the shimmying could not be ignored. We were scoping out places to pull over and I (Matthew) was seeking advice from a wise man when more of a popping sound happened. That was the place we stopped and sat for roughly 4 hours. 

For some strange reason two lug nuts broke on the driver's side back wheel and the others were loose! 

We set the Burley out back in an effort to not get run over by crazy cars on the interstate! 

After several minutes I realized we had roadside assistance! That was pretty cool. There is nothing like looking for help on a Sunday afternoon...on a holiday weekend. 

Slowly but surely the little tow truck icon made its way toward us. He was there within 45 minutes then tried to help for nearly two hours. We couldn't quite solve the problem but were able to tighten remaining tire bolts and gimp the last 20 miles into Peoria, Illinois. 

We are really grateful to God for several things. We were not hurt and our stuff wasn't damaged at all, Peoria wasn't that far away and the mechanic was pretty cool. 

This will definitely impact the trip and we are trying to get to another mechanic first thing in the morning. I was bummed not to get to Kurt's place tonight. I haven't seen him in several years. I'm hoping we can still connect sometime tomorrow. Will we ride tomorrow? That is the question.

Hey, this is only the beginning of the adventure. While we get to tell our story, there is a greater story going on in the Dominican Republic. WE love The Center in Santiago, Dominican Republic and want to share it with all of you. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. 

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