Our tire odyssey...for the Odyssey

I was not aware -- until I ended up contemplating death by hypothermia in a ditch last February, that is -- that Honda Odyssey stock tires are absolute crap on ice and snow. Therefore, on Monday, Barb and I hied ourselves and the kids off to get new snow tires for the Honda Odyssey. Barb got her nails done while I took the kids to Alyeska Tires to get a spankin' new set of Toyo Observes which are comparable to Blizzaks. (Don't I sound like a true Alaskan, kicking my snow tires and discussing their relative merits? I need a sourdough pancake and a set of Carhartts over here please)

Anyway, we got them installed with relatively little pain. The guys at Alyeska (particularly Chris) were very sweet and helpful and gave me a nice deal on the tires. Their waiting area was not particularly kid friendly, but they had big displays of tires and didn't seem to mind the two year old manhandling their tire displays for two hours. I could have skipped the display of super caffeinated chocolate candies...if Connor had gotten a hold of one, I would still be scraping him off the ceiling! They actually had a diaper changing table in their restroom which was a pleasant surprise...the bathroom wasn't very clean, which was a not so pleasant expectation. What can you expect in a tire shop filled with guys though? Most importantly, we left confident in our ability to stay on the road now that we have massive amounts of snow and ice everywhere.

Then...Tuesday. We decided to go get a few things at the commissary and stopped to have lunch at Burger King first. We came out to find my rear right wheel flatter than a pancake. Oh nooooo. After the Charlie Rescue Force showed up and fixed the flat, we headed home and made an appointment to go to Alyeska Tire again. With all due respect to them, we strongly suspected incorrect installation caused the problem.

So Barb and I packed the kids up Wed morning for a subarctic expedition, white knuckling it all the way to Fairbanks on my doughnut. After a long wait, we determined that my wheel itself was actually damaged (not caused by tire guys, my apologies), so we had to go over to Honda and get the tire ordered under warranty. Because we live at the end of the world, it takes 3-5 days to get the wheel up here. I will say, Auto Services was fantastic and Darlene was particularly great ad was really responsive to my "duh" request later that afternoon. Overall, a long couple days in waiting rooms with not great results, but great customer service. We broke even!