My day

Plan: leave Vancouver right after rush hour. Get through the border. Drive to Bellingham, meet up with one kid or the other to exchange keys and swaps cars.

What happened, as I told the kids over Discord:

Perry: (...) Also yeah sounds like you had a time on your way back

Me: It was NOT fun. Tire blew out near Ferndale, as I was passing a line of semis, so going fast and no opportunity to duck back in quickly. Lots of smoke by the time I was able to. 😛 Also, the backend got bumpy then loose. Just nasty to drive. At least it was the back tire! Tried to call a towing place to come change the tire (waay too exposed for me to do it by myself: I'm not fast enough). The towing place must have been dispatched nationally but lied when I asked them, because they couldn't do anything when I told them I was by the side of I5 near the blah blah blah exit, and kept on demanding... a street address and a zip code. Since I was 1/4-1/2 mile from the exit, I ended up limping the poor car that far at 5mph. There was a roundabout at the bottom of the exit and people honked at me for taking it at 5mph. Feh. Anyhow, pulled into a parking lot, a gal pulled in after me and offered to help, which I was like yes please, I've done this before but not on the Prius and just having someone there would help. I remembered to break the lug nuts and get them loose before we jacked the car up. Got it about halfway up when a guy came up and offered to help, which was great, because in the end, he put the wheel in the back of the car for me. Her name is Lexi, she's a bit older, but is graduating in December. His was Dean, and he was the former golf head coach. Go Vikings!
Drove to Bellingham on I5 doing 50, got off at Samish way to check the lug nuts (all still tight), go pee and get a diet coke. Then... I drove home via back roads. Padden Park, Lake Samish, Null Road etc to highway 9. It was a slog but I made it. Next available for replacing the tired is in a few weeks so... I dunno. We'll see.