The Mule Kicks Up A Fuss About Leavin'

Not ones to wear out our welcome we planned to mosey on out of this SW Texas 2 horse town along about sunup today. We said our goodbyes to our kinfolk last night, loaded the covered wagon (RV) and hitched up the mule (Honda) to follow along. Our plan was to head south to Padre Island via back country roads through historic cities like Laredo, driving along the Rio Grande River and checking out the sites along the way. We were looking forward to the change of scenery from cactus and sagebrush to sand, beaches and ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Ed was looking forward to making a visit to historic Fort Brown near which the city of Brownsville grewup. Ed's great great (X ?) grandfather Ezekiel Hatch was in the US Army and served for a year at Fort Brown with his brother Elijah (no kidding) in 1851-52. The big Texas-Mexico stuff happened in/around 1846 so Ed was hoping to find out more about what was going on at that time (early 1850's) and what the Hatch brothers military service would have been like. I say "was" because these best laid plans got blown up by a blow out (and a sovereign God!).
We were about 45 miles south of Del Rio and had just bumped along about 6 miles of highway road construction. A rutted, graveled, muddy road construction road. About a mile and a half after getting back on the good road a car passed us and motioned frantically for us to pull over pointing to the back of the motorhome. We can't see the Honda from the mirrors, but we have a camera on the back where we can see it as it follows along. We had not noticed any problems. We pulled over, put our flashers on, and an 18 wheeler which had been following us, pulled over too. We went back to the Honda to find the front wheels cocked at an odd angle, the passenger side tire shredded and the drivers side tire missing and about 1/3 of the wheel of the missing tire sheered off. The truck driver explained that he had seen the left front tire (the one missing) go flat and quickly run off the rim about 3/4 of a mile back. Without that tire the front wheel turned sharply to the right and we drug the car going about 55-60 mp for about 1/4 to 1/2 mile before the car could get our attention and we stopped. He said sparks were flying everywhere and we were lucky the car didn't catch on fire. We got in touch with USAA and ended up having the car towed back to Del Rio to get repaired. (That is a whole story in itself...) They should be able to get the parts to fix the car in the next day or so. We're probably looking at a 3-4 day delay total, but we just put it all in perspective: No one was hurt. It could have been worse. We get to spend more time with Kylan. We had a plan, but God had a different plan. We'll have to do Padre Island and Fort Brown another time.
In the meantime we'll just hitch up our wagon (RV) in this here corral (the base FAMCAMP) and set a spell. Don't be a stranger now, ya' hear!