Six Tires Texas

Let me tell you a story:

About 30 years ago Bill and I were assistants to our youth pastor at Ascension Lutheran Church. One summer we took three cars filled with 16 and 17 year olds to a Luther League convention in New Orleans. The cars were rented out by Avis. (Their motto was “We try harder.”) Our first breakdown was in San Bernardino.

A few hours later we traded that car in Phoenix-but it was much too small. The two days later Bill had a flat tire between El Paso and Junction, Texas. A few hours later I had a blow out 20 miles beyond Junction in the middle of nowhere. When we went to change the tire—there was no spare tire! So we sat on the road with 20 kids.

We finally started carpooling the girls back towards a KOA camp that we had passed several miles back while the boys stayed on the road. Finally a small tire was found in a little gas station (those were the days gas stations had garages and not mini marts.) The tire really didn’t fit—but it had to do.

The boys pulled in late and even though it was 11:00 they wanted to go swimming. Then we had had to sleep in the long grasses (mosquitoes, chiggers, and all!) in our sleeping bags. Bill woke us all up at 4:00 A.M. so it was still dark. One of the boys accidentally hit the horn and it would not turn off. Bill and some others scrambled under the hood to stop the horn and someone accidentally pulled the ground wire that starts the car. Well, the horn stopped but now the car wouldn’t start. We could hear applause coming from the nearby tents as we pushed the car out of the camp.

Now we had to get on the road with one car that needed to be hot wired to start, another that could not go over 40 because the tire was too small, and another that was too small for comfort.

We finally limped into a small tire dealership in little town. It was the 170th day of a rubber strike so they had a very difficult time finding tires that would fit for the car. We were forced to put four brand new tires on that car. When we looked at another car we realized that it too needed two tires. Avis could not purchase it in that small town but was willing to reimburse us when we got back. Bill and I had just received our very first credit card with a limit of $300. We spent it all.

For years we have told this story to people and we have always referred to this small town as “Six Tires, Texas.” We have never known where “Six Tires, Texas is but yet we have always talked about it as if it is the official name.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, last night we slept in “Six Tires, Texas” otherwise known as Kerrville. We stayed with our friends Mike and Michelle Hozman who have retired there and love it. Kerrville now has 20,000 people and looks much different than it did 30 years ago. It was fun catching up with Mike and Michelle and seeing their home. There are deer everywhere so Bill was able to get a few photos. The deer are very bold and even come up to the glass doors of the house (though we weren’t able to witness this last night.)
We left at about 9:00 for a 12 hour drive to Tucson, Arizona. (and passed the KOA camp.) Gone is all the greenery we have seen for the majority of this vacation. Most of the day was desert. We went through a few rainshowers but nothing terrifically bad.

We switched off driving so Bill could get some rest. I became a little nostalgic as I heard “Sloop John B” on my iPod. I could hear in my mind so vividly Kiersten and Sean singing it on our 1992 vacation to Nebraska “I wanna go home—oh let me go home”
At that time it annoyed me-- but today it brought good memories of family time.

Its nice to be back in a state that offers seat covers in the rest rooms!