I am supposed to be in Chicago right now, but due to what happened to me Thursday night I had to cancel my trip and stick around.

I planned on driving out to Chicago after I got off work Thursday evening. I left work in Chantilly at around 5:30 and got up to Breezewood, PA at around 7:30. I figure I'm making good time since it only took two hours to do that (I cut thru Winchester on 50 and 522 to bypass DC rush hour).

So I get gas and dinner in Breezewood and I hop on the PA Turnpike heading west. About 30 miles into the Turnpike, debris pierces the inner sidewall of my right rear tire in two places, flattening it and putting me on the shoulder of the Turnpike.

Luckily PA Turnpike Roadside Assistance showed up within 15 minutes of me placing a call and we got the spare put on. Since it was a temporary spare, I turned around and headed back home. However, I couldn't do more then 45 mph because of the temp spare. So from Bedford, PA all the way back to DC, I was doing no more then 45 mph on the interstate. I finally got home at 2am Friday morning.

Luckily there was very little damage besides the tire. I just got done jacking up the WRX and checking the underside for any damage. Besides the tire, it just dented my 4 inch downpipe by maybe 1/16th of an inch and tapped my muffler. I've already ordered up some tires off Tire Rack since these tires were worn anyways, so those should show up Monday.

To those who travel the PA Turnpike, you should know that roadside assistance costs $53 cash at the minimum (they DON'T accept credit cards, only cash). If you have AAA, then they will bill AAA for the service and you just pay sales tax. HOWEVER, AAA is prohibited by law from entering the Turnpike to help you. If you want help, you have to use Turnpike Emergency Assistance.

As for Chicago, I will try to drive there again in the Spring. My next trip will be a road trip to Providence at the beginning of next month. We shall see how that goes.

 

That sucks man sorry to here that.
$53 now that truly is highway robbery.

 

what were u headed up there for

 

how come you didn't change your tire your self?

 

Headed up there for a vacation to go see family. I like driving, so that is why I was driving instead of flying.

If I was able to pull into a service plaza or take an exit off the Turnpike, I would have. However, I had just passed an exit and a service plaza when the tire went, and the next exit wasn't for another 36 miles and the next service plaza wasn't for another 24 miles.

The shoulder was not very wide at all. My WRX barely fit onto it. The jack that comes with my car wouldn't have worked because I didn't have any room to move to the side of my car and jack from the right side at the proper location made for the jack. There was no lights on the road in that area except for the headlights from the cars and tractor trailers passing by, so I couldn't really see. I was also concerned about getting hit, and I knew that if I called for roadside assistance they would come in a vehicle that would be lit up enough to where people would see what was happening from way far back.

Also, I did it so that somebody besides me knew I was disabled. A lot of shady people travel the highways these days. Finally, I was hoping that the tire could be patched so that I could keep going. If it could have been patched, I would have followed the guy back to the garage, got the tire patched and remounted, and I would have drove onto Chicago.

 

that sucks but you got lucky, when i went to philly last nov, i blew out a tire on the way back. we waited 2hrs for roadside assistance that was after placing 3 phone calls with the state police and tow companies

 

ahahahahaha, that was beautiful


but ya, that sucks man, sorry to hear about your wasted night