... 'hindsight is 20/20'

We could have been hurt very badly or even killed.
Dianna and I worked frantically all day Friday to get ready for a 'quick' trip to Joplin.
It turns out that the room addition Dad had contracted on his home in Joplin didn't meet city code. We were notified by the realtor that it would have to be 'disassembled' in order to list it, unless he was willing to greatly reduce the asking price. Unfortunately he was already going to take a big hit because the market value on homes in that area had declined in the last few months.
That made the trip more or less a necessity; we thought.
Di loaded all the 'essentials' needed for a two day trip and I loaded all the tools we had for doing demolition. At that point I headed for the shower to rinse off while she left to go gas up. I didn't want to travel four hours smelling like a wet goat.

I haven't used the driver's side window in quite awhile because it was acting up and about to go out. Di didn't remember that little tidbit of information and rolled the window down to tell the gas station attendant how much fuel we needed. It wouldn't go back up. And so after almost an hour I came to the conclusion that I was not going to get that window to go back up but, like the troopers we are, we pressed on anyway.
That 'broken' window should have been the 'final clue' that kept us off the road but we missed it... along with all the other promptings throughout the course of the day.

Now if you will, envision the three of us whistling down the road at about 70 miles an hour with two ladders strapped to the roof of the tool filled Suburban and the driver's side window down when ... "Bam"! The left front tire tread explodes off of the tire and flies away in shreds making a horrendous noise somewhat like a plane crashing in a world war II movie. I don't know about you but I don't like sudden loud noises; especially the ones that give me the distinct impression of impending doom.
I wrestled the vehicle to the roadside and put it into park.  Di looked as white as a new sheet and Josh was as wide eyed as I have ever seen him, but we were alive.
At that point I stepped out of the car to survey the damage.
As the tread was coming off it had loosened the metal wrap inside the wheelwell, buckling it, causing the tread to whip the outside of the left front fender as well as the front bumper, which in turn tore off a strip of rubber trim.
I was amazed that the tire had not deflated. It was still fully inflated but the metal belt beneath the tread was sticking out like a pile of old dried spaghetti.

What had kept it from going flat? I think I know. As far as I'm concerned, God had his hand on us, keeping us from being harmed or even killed.

After all the hints and promptings we were still not listening; just bumbling along like we had good sense. If we had only prayed about the trip I fully believe we would have shut down the plan to travel and not gone through what we did.
How true it is, the old saying, "hindsight is 20/20".