So me and Lauren were headed down to Philly to see Sevendust/Nonpoint at the TLA. Now normally we would rent a car but I asked my dad if we could just take our car, cuz we figured it would be cheaper (the rental would have been at least $150, not including gas), and he actually said yes (I'd asked numerous times before and always gotten a no, hence why we always had to rent cars).

Anyway, I had to wait for Lauren to get off work before we could head down so my brother drove the car to where she works then he took the train to work, and I just waited in the car for her to get out. Finally at about 6:15, she met me and we took off (we took a longer way since we figured traffic on the turnpike on a Friday evening was gonna be killer). We were actually making good time, or so we thought. Our directions took us onto Route 206 South and we were crossing through some towns in Jersey I'd never even heard of, but eventually the directions told us to exit and get on I-95. After being on I-95 for about 5 minutes, the car started vibrating pretty heavily. I asked Lauren what the hell that was and she barely got the words "it's probably the tires" out, when the front passenger side tire just exploded and she almost lost control of the car. Luckily, she was able to keep it pretty steady and pull over to the right shoulder. It was about 9 pm at this point, showtime. But we figured if we got the tire changed relatively soon, Sevendust wouldn't even go on until about 11 so we could still make the show. So we called our parents and told them what happened, and didn't really know where to call for help, so we finally just had to call 911. Lauren explained what happened and they connected us to the NJ State Police, who told her they would send someone out to help us. That was at 9:19. The thing was that we didn't know exactly where we were since we had barely just gotten on I-95 and where she was able to pull over, there were no signs. The last town I remember passing through while we were still on Route 206 was Lawrence, NJ. Now, there was a mile marker pretty far ahead of us in a grassy separation between the actual highway and one of the entrance ramps. I told her I would try and go see what it said but she told me it was too dangerous for me to just walk down the highway when it was that dark. So we sat there waiting until we realized no one was coming so she called 911 back at about 10:30. They reconnected her to the state police and they told her that they couldn't find us. Ok, so they just stopped looking? WTF. Again, they told us they would send someone out. Sure enough, at 11:08 I had to call them back since still no one had come to get us. Before I called back the 3rd time, I actually went out and read the mile marker cuz I figured we definitely weren't going to get helped if they couldn't find us. I had Lauren shine this really cool light that came in my dad's auto emergency kit. You just plug it into the cigarette lighter and voila, light! She shone it on me as I walked to and back from the mile marker so cars could see me as they passed.

Anyway, so finally at about 11:46 the NJ state troopers pull up behind us. Here we figured since it took them so long to find us and we were two young girls out on the side of the road close to midnight, they would help us change the tire (there was a spare in the back). Well, we were wrong! One of the first things out of his mouth was "well, we don't change tires". Ok, thanks for the help. They called a towing service and then instead of waiting with us until they showed up, which he said would take another 15 minutes, he just asked "You gonna be ok?" I just replied, "Well we've already been here over two hours and we're fine." So they just left! WTF, you just leave two young girls on the side of the road at midnight?! Good going, Jersey! Add that to the fact that no one stopped to even ask if we were hurt, and on top of that, instead of slowing down when you see a disabled vehicle on the shoulder as required by law, they would whiz past us. One car even honked at us on the way by as if to say, you're in my way. Well, excuse us for inconveniencing you, asshole. It gets better though...another car tried to hit on us rather than offer help and a police car from Ewing, NJ actually slowed down to ask if we were ok, and we told him the tire blew out and that state troopers were supposed to be on the way. Instead of him waiting with us until help arrived, he said he would radio and find out where they were and then just left. I was completely baffled by these people's behavior. I understand the not stopping to offer help, cuz who knows these days if that could be a trap to attack someone or whatever, but someone could have at least asked if we were ok and then maybe we would've just asked where we were so we could give the troopers better information. The only person that stopped, and this was almost immediately after the troopers left us, was a creepy old guy who asked us if we were ok and then asked if we wanted him to wait with us until help arrived. We told him no thank you, that help was on the way, so he told us to keep our doors locked and be safe, then left. Now, you would think that was nice of him, so why is he creepy? Well he came back around and asked us the same thing! Luckily he was coming onto the highway on the entrance ramp, which was separated by the grass I walked through to read the mile marker. He also asked us where the driver was, since me and Lauren were both sitting on the shoulder side of the car - I was in the back and she was in the front, which we thought was weird as well. If he had pulled up next to us or behind us and gotten out of the car, and then come back around again, we would have freaked out!

So finally the towing service shows up and he changes the tire. Lauren goes to start the car and it won't start! What the hell. So he gives us a boost. It starts and as we go to back up (he told us to so we could get to a gas station about a mile away to inflate the spare better, instead of going all the way around and have to turn back), the thing goes flat and the rubber part starts coming off the rim. We could not freaking believe our luck! We finally had to just get towed to a hotel that was near a tire service center and had to spend the night at the Howard Johnson Inn in Lawrenceville, NJ. We got the tire replaced this morning and finally just made it home a little over an hour ago.

So all in all, with the towing, hotel, and tire change, we spent about $273! Next time, definitely renting a car!!!

Pictures in an album titled "Non-trip to Philly"...go see what happened to this freaking tire.