Fire!

I feel like it's been awhile since we've had some exciting drama in the Ball family so we made up for it in a BIG way on July 5th.  We decided to take the boat to Lake WA for a dinner cruise with the Johnson's which should have been no big deal.  The truck that we share with our boating families had been acting weird so I took it to the mechanic earlier that week.  They changed the spark plugs, did an oil change, and still needed to fix some sort of steering problem that was causing the check engine light to go on.  The mechanic was taking forever on the repairs (no boating when the truck is in the shop), so I picked up the truck so we would have it while the Johnson's were here and paid the mechanic for all the repairs, even though it wasn't completely done.  He told me we could totally drive it and to bring it back after the holiday.  

Imagine our surprise when we were driving it on the freeway and the engine was starting to roar like we needed to shift gears.  It's an automatic so we couldn't shift gears.  We kept driving even after I suggested we turn around.  The truck kept getting slower and slower as we made our way onto I-405 South and it finally rolled to a stop, not far from the exit we needed to take.  We couldn't put it in park and nothing was working.  I hopped out of the truck to make sure our hazards on the trailer were working because there was no shoulder to park on.  We were literally stopped on the freeway.  When I turned around to go back to the truck I saw flames coming out from around the front tire.  All seven of us quickly got out of the truck and jumped over the cement barrier as we all had visions of our truck exploding into flames.  

Randy got the fire extinguisher out of the boat and tried to spray the flames but it was like putting out a fire with squirt gun :)

The Johnson's took great pictures and videos while Randy called 911, and then I called 911 because I thought Randy didn't call 911 and in about five minutes there were three firetrucks at the scene.  By this point the flames were shooting high and the smoke was billowing into the sky.  When the firemen arrived, I think they were surprised by the flames because they hadn't put on their coats or helmets yet and had to quickly finish dressing before fighting the fire.  They asked us if anyone was trapped inside and you can imagine the huge sigh of relief when we said no.  They worked quickly to block three lanes of traffic so the fireman could douse the flames, first with some retardant stuff and then with water.  The tires exploded, so that was exciting, and the smell of burnt rubber will be seared into my brain forever.  A tow truck arrived and dragged the truck and boat to the median at the top of the exit ramp and left the boat Parker there, then took the truck away to an impound lot.  The tow truck guy used a snow shovel to scrape up all the melted car parts and rubber and just dumped it all on the other side of the median.  April was smart enough to point out to our boys that if they don't go to college someday they too could be doing that terrible job :) Then we called our friend and fellow boat owner to come get us and take us home so Randy could come back with my Expedition to pull the boat home. 

We successfully caused a major traffic jam in both directions

I was barely functioning at this point and couldn't believe we blew up the truck.  I also couldn't believe that everyone was ok.  It felt like something traumatic enough to involve 911 feels like something bad should've happened.  Long story short, we the insurance took care of everything after lots of phone calls and interviews with everyone to confirm we didn't get hurt or intentionally blow up our truck

We sure got a good laugh when the two truck guy tried to shift the truck into park to try to unlock the back wheels.  There was literally nothing left of the engine :) Silly tow truck man!