Did you know….

That your tires can talk?

I got a “wild hair (or is it hare….) this week, and made DH take me up to Volcano National Park at night.  I wanted to take pictures of the Military Camp all lit up for Christmas.  I also wanted to see if we could view any lava flow.

We drove down Chain of Craters road to where Pu’u O’o was reportedly flowing. Down…down…down… all the way to the sea we drove, until we could…see.  We saw flow and took some pictures (most of which were duds….) and then started back up the hill.

Halfway up, I noted a previously unseen warning light on the dashboard.  A quick owner’s manual perusal told us that it was a tire pressure warning.  There we were, in the middle (ok, late evening) of the night, on the flanks of a flowing volcano. We hadn’t seen another car in hours…….we finished the climb back to the summit, and made our way post haste to a gas station where we checked the tires.  They were all fine.  Hrmmmmm……..

DH spent the next day re-reading the manual.  Well, apparently all the tires (including the spare) have a microchip that sends a message (sometimes saying “HELP”) to the car’s computer.

Our spare tire, never used, was crying for attention. It has now been filled, is sated, and is happily reestablished in the trunk.

Off to chase the next wild hair….er…hare.