The Summer Road Trip when My Car Caught on Fire

My worst summer travel experience occurred the year that I graduated from college. I was starting a new job as an Ensign in the United States Navy, and I had been working for a couple of weeks at my college before heading out on a trip across the country to go to Surface Warfare Officer's school, from Los Angeles, California, to Rhode Island. I had everything planned out: my car had bald tires, but before I left, I'd get my first paycheck and get them replaced. I had plenty of time to make the trip, and I was going to be taking my fianc© (now husband), Timothy, along with me. We were going to stop along the way if we saw anything that interested us; it would be a lot of fun, like a vacation.

Setting Off

Unfortunately, things didn't work out as planned. The Navy didn't pay me my first paycheck on time, and I had no money to replace the tires with. I had money to make the trip, but not much else. I didn't know what to do, other than to pray that my tires would make the trip. I now know that I could have probably asked Navy Relief to help me out with a short-term loan, as this was an emergency, but I didn't know that then. I asked my parents for a loan, but they had just spent a lot of money to come visit me for graduation, and didn't have any money to spare.

The first part of the trip went well. We stopped at the California border with Arizona and took pictures. I just love driving down the interstate on long destinations, looking at the scenery. We were having a good time, but the tires were always on the back of my mind.

The car was fine though, until we were about ready to leave Arizona.

Thump Thump Thump!

Somewhere between Southern Arizona and New Mexico, our tire started to make funny thumping noises. I checked the tires, and they still had air in them; the thumping would stop after we got on the road. I was pretty nervous, but I didn't know what I could do. I prayed that we would get to our destination okay.

We drove through Texas, and as we drove along, the steering wheel started to shake. To this day, I can often tell when I need to replace my tires just by how the steering wheel shakes, although I never let my tires get as bad as these were any more. As we drove through Texas, the steering wheel started to shake more. I knew that I needed to do something. I was going to try calling my parents again that night. When we got to Louisiana, I thought about stopping at Shreveport and calling my mom, but it was so early that I decided to press on to Jacksonville, Mississippi. That was a big mistake.

The Fire

The tire decided to go right after we left Shreveport, just outside the small little town of Minden, Louisiana. Unlike any of the other times that I've run over a nail or something and the tire blew, this time, the car was pushed out of control. I ran into a guard rail going about 50 miles per hour. For a second, I sat there, stunned. My fianc©e told me to get out of the car. It was already smoking.

Now, all my stuff was in the car. I had my military uniforms, my computer, all of my cash, and pretty much everything that I owned. The hood of my car was on fire. I wasn't really thinking that clearly at the time because I was so shocked, but a passerby stopped and helped me get the keys out of the ignition (he was a brave soul). We were able to open up the trunk and toss nearly everything that I owned out of the back of the car, including all of my cash. The only thing that to this day I wish that we had rescued was my camera, with the pictures that I had taken from earlier in the trip.

After we rescued all of my belongings, all I could do was watch the car burn. The sunroof eventually exploded. I don't remember how we got all of my stuff to the local motel, but somehow we did. The next day, we came back to our car before we left town, and everything had burned, except for the Bible. It was covered in oil and unusable, but oddly enough, it did not burn.

The Rest of the Trip

We took a Greyhound Bus to Rhode Island. There were a couple of highlights in the remainder of the trip: the bus stopped in Atlanta so I was able to see some of that, and we stopped for a brief while in New York City. Riding in a bus across the country is not my idea of a good time though, even though we did meet some interesting characters.

The accident ended up being quite costly; it cost me over $10,000 to replace the car. I'll never forget that trip though. As I plan on driving my kids to Yellowstone and to my parent's house this summer, I was very careful to check my tires before leaving (and I replaced three tires that looked a little worn).