The Kindness of Strangers

I know you're not supposed to talk to strangers, but I think there are circumstances...

Vassy asked if I could come to Saskatoon with her on Sunday to help her apartment hunt (and tell her which areas to absolutely avoid at all costs). So we spent the day running around the S'toon until around 6 when we decided it was time to head home. About 15 minutes south of Rosetown, her car started shuddering horribly so we pulled over to the shoulder immediately and sure enough, the back drivers side tire had completely shredded. Seeing as I am a woman of the world, I went to the trunk of her car and found the donut, jack, and tire-iron. I was getting ready to be a big tough girl (rawr!) when a very nice family pulled over in their van. The father and young teenage son came over to help us. Feeling like I had already prove my toughness, I handed the tire-iron and jack over and the pair went to work. They removed the lug nuts (with what was likely more muscle power than I possessed) and went to work removing the wheel. Regardless of what they tried though, it would NOT come off. The poor guy couldn't get it to budge at all. He tried everything from pulling, to kicking, to trying to use the tire iron as a lever before we called Roadside Assistance for help. Only after he knew they were on their way did he and his family leave.

So Vassy and I bunkered down on the car and waited for Roadside to get there. A few people pulled over and we told them what was going on and they went on their way. A little while later a man in a pickup truck with a trailer of tools pulled over. It was getting dark, so I told Vassy that we should just stay in the car and roll down the window a little to talk to him. We explained the situation and he asked if we would mind if he gave it a try. We told him to go right ahead, so he pulled, kicked, and tried the tire iron too. Having no luck with these methods, he went a step further and brought the biggest prybar I'd ever seen from his trailer. Sure enough, the tire popped off and we cheered! He then put the donut on, and told us he would follow us the whole way back to Swift, going 80k (max speed on a donut). We made it back to Swift just about 2 hours later, safe and sound, and very very grateful to the wonderful man who decided to stop and help us.