Lost in Franklinville

Recently made a return trip to Franklinville to change a flat tire on my van after playing a great private party filling in on bass for Steelhorse. All in all it was an rather unforgettable experience so I decided to write a blog piece about my day in Franklinville.
Beyond making sure that you bring all the music gear you need in preparation for an out of town trip, be sure to have a spare tire filled with air, a jack and a tire iron, in case you get a flat tire in the middle of nowhere ...out of cell phone range.
Here's where my tour story about Franklinville begins, after filling in for Steelhorse on bass I got a flat tire on the rocky trail down to the road. Not having a spare I had to leave my van in Franklinville and hitch a ride home with a couple of the guys from Steelhorse. Thank You for the ride home guys!
The next day, after calling 3 car parts stores, I learned that you can't just buy a rim for a tire, you have to special order them because car parts stores don't stock them and rims are very expensive.
I ended up calling a junkyard and bought a tire and rim for $50.
So after packing up my spare, a jack and a gas can full of gas my friend and I headed out to Franklinville to change my tire and return back home.
I brought my GPS and didn't bother printing out directions because my GPS got me to Franklinville on my initial trip.
Well my GPS was not fully charged and it died on the way out there, this was our first setback on the way out to Franklinville. After realizing we were lost my friend made a call and with some haphazard directions we were on our way... to getting lost again. After making a couple more calls and writing directions down we thought we were on our way...but being unfamiliar with Franklinville we got lost yet again. My friend and I decided to stop at a few houses to ask for directions, one of the locals finally helped us out and we finally ended up at our destination.
Changing a flat tire on a unlevel dirt road isn't easy. After my friend jacked up the van to change the flat he became overzealous and decided to take the flat tire off before the van was high enough to put the spare on. Well the jack was unlevel and after my friend pulled the flat tire off the jack fell forward and my van fell onto the ground, resting on the axle.
After jacking up the van for a second time the spare tire was on and we were ready to embark on our journey home.
After getting lost yet again we were pulled over by the police because apparently someone called the cops on us because we were "going door to door trying to sell something".
This is where my frustration peaked and I started to become frustrated because we were only trying to ask for directions and now we were being interrogated by a police officer...just great.
I was out of my vehicle when 2 more cop cars pulled up and unbelievably it started pouring rain!
I knew that the cops didn't believe our flat tire story so in my frustration I opened up my trunk and threw out the flat tire on the ground, well I almost got arrested for doing that. Supposedly I wasn't supposed to be "out of my vehicle" in the pouring rain during the traffic stop.
The first cop that pulled us over said we "scared the bejesus out of a couple of people" when we attempted to ask for directions, so after my friend and I conveyed to the police exactly what was going on, one of the cops led us out of Franklinville so we could follow the right path.
After all was said and done what was supposed to take a few hours turned into a all day affair out in Franklinville.

What did I learn from this journey?
1. Make sure to have a spare tire before traveling to a out of town.
2. Always be sure to Fully charge up my GPS!
3. Always print out directions to and from any out of town location, just in case.
4. If you're lost in Franklinville don't stop at any houses and attempt to ask for directions.