Home at last! We arrived home around 11:30pm last night, unpacked most of our stuff and went straight to bed.
Our flight took a little longer than expected because of some foul weather around Orlando, but we arrived at Dulles at around 6:45pm. Brian's parents picked us up and took us to their house where they treated us to a nice home-cooked meal. Thanks yet again to Mr. and Mrs. Korte!
Olivia and I left shortly after eating (nothing like eating and running!) so that we could make it back here to Richmond in case her parents showed up. Her parents are making the trip to Virginia for a short vacation and for a wedding of a family friend. We weren't sure if they would be coming here to our apartment or down to Tidewater, so we wanted to be here, just in case. It turns out that they decided to stay down there for the night, since the wedding is Sunday evening.
I woke up around 9:30 this morning to head over to Firestone to pick up the new shoes for my lady (new wheels for the truck). The front desk guy let me take a look at them when I got there. Niiiiiiiiice. So shiny. So perfect. I waited an hour and a half for them to get to me and then the fun began: mounting 205/40-17 rubber bands on a set of 17s. You see, this particular shop doesn't have a newer machine designed for mounting large (and difficult) tires onto custom wheels. Most reputable shops have such a machine and I guess I just assumed that this shop had newer equipment. So, the tire guy slaved over the tire-mounting machine for about 10 minutes. Then he called over another guy. They both worked on it. And another guy. Three guys working on it. No luck. After 20 minutes and plenty of words that a sailor would be proud of, they decided that they just weren't going to be able to mount the tires on these wheels. So they gave up and told me to take the wheels and tires to a shop with a touchless mounting system and get them to mount them for me and they'd take it off of my bill. Fair enough. So, I brought the wheels and tires home wiith me. Now the task is to find a shop that's willing to mount my tires for me...and not scratch them. Until then, I have a make-shift end table and the place smells like rubber.
In a little while, we'll be off again, down to Tidewater for the wedding. When I return later, I'll most likely post pictures from Magic Kingdom and our return trip.
You see, this particular shop doesn't have a newer machine designed for mounting large (and difficult) tires onto custom wheels. Most reputable shops have such a machine and I guess I just assumed that this shop had newer equipment. So, the tire guy slaved over the tire-mounting machine for about 10 minutes. Then he called over another guy. They both worked on it. And another guy. Three guys working on it. No luck. After 20 minutes and plenty of words that a sailor would be proud of, they decided that they just weren't going to be able to mount the tires on these wheels. So they gave up and told me to take the wheels and tires to a shop with a touchless mounting system and get them to mount them for me and they'd take it off of my bill. Fair enough. So, I brought the wheels and tires home wiith me. Now the task is to find a shop that's willing to mount my tires for me...and not scratch them. Until then, I have a make-shift end table and the place smells like rubber. 
