Tyres and Murphy’s Law!

Tuesday we visited one of our sponsors Kenwood. When we left I noticed that Elles had a flat tyre. As we were close to her car dealer we changed the tyre and brought the flat one to her dealer. We kept laughing as it was happening now and so it wouldn’t on our journey…we hope.

We would pick up the repaired tyre on Saturday and the chance of another would be so small that winning the lottery would be more likely. But, at times when you don’t want to meet him, Mr Murphy comes to visit. Mr Murphy has this Law that says: Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Friday, today is one of those days that I curse the day Mr Murphy came up with his Law. We left the house early as we had an appointment with Pirelli for a new set of tyres and two new spare tyres. As we left, I noticed the engine was making a funny noice and before I knew it the engine failed. Oooh bummer….. yesterday I had noticed I was low on fuel and in the middle of everything I had forgotten to fill it up. But Elles and I handled it quickly as a team. As we were in a hurry, I removed the extra petrol tank from the back. Elles, who was driving her own car, went to the nearby gas station to fill it up. Luckily, this event only took us only 10 minutes and a bit late we arrived at Viborg, the tyre centre, that would install the new Pirelly tyres.

Looking at the time we needed to leave quickly as we had another appointment with a possible major sponsor, Go-Tan, a producer of delicious oriental food ingredients. So we jumped in the car and headed towards Kesteren some 45 kilometres of Utrecht. We kept laughing about the fuel incident until we drove on the highway and heard a loud bang followed by a thumping noice. Luckily we were close by a petrol station and guess what…. Another flat tyre!! By this time I started to resent the fact that Mr Murphy was ever born as we had left the spare tyre at Elles her car dealer for reparation. Quickly, Elles called Go-tan that we would be late and I called the ANWB, highway emergency services. Luckily they came quickly and could repair the tyre. Being 45 minutes late at an appointment with a very important sponsor doesn’t feel good. But the meeting went well, very well! We even got to see the production plant. Now that was cool! Packed with lots of delicious goodies we left Go-Tan 3 ½ hours later and raced back to Utrecht to the next meeting with another possible sponsor. First we had to pick up the camper and being in time for the meeting would be a close call. But we made it in time, we thought…. Due to a miscommunication we thought the meeting was at 15:30 but they thought it was a 14:00. In my mind I asked Mr Murphy to call it a day and leave in silence. He did….Fortunately! The meeting was great although Elles and I were a bit nervous after all that had happened. We discussed all possibilities and left an hour later. On the way back I picked up some sandpaper for the car and did some shopping. Elles had already crashed on the couch and when I got home.. within no-time..I joined her.