continental tires, mercedes-benz and oklahoma can all suck my balls

those of you reading this know that i am on a cross country drive from maryland to las vegas. i have my friend seth and sascha-dog with me. we drove from maryland to dallas straight through no problems, spent a couple of days in dallas hanging out, and then set out on friday for albuquerque new mexico to stay with seths friend tanya. perfect scenario, its like the half-way point from dallas to vegas.

in the middle of oklahoma (erick, oklahoma, in case you want to look that shithole up on a map), we blew out the back left tire on my car. this is the 2nd flat i've had since i got this damn car in march.

i have the sport package, so my car wears continental 245/40/R18 low profile tires. now keep in mind, these are the tires that mercedes puts on the car. so, you would think that perhaps a mercedes dealer might have one in stock......

no. such. fucking. luck.

the closest mercedes dealer to us was over 200 miles away, and no tire shop anywhere had a tire even close.

we had to drive on the spare (not fullsize, by the way) for FOUR HUNDRED FUCKING MILES at 50 miles an hour to albuquerque, where the local dealer here was able to put on an 18" continental tire, but its the wrong one. so when i get to vegas, i need to order a new fucking tire.

mercedes-benz customer care is only open from 9-5 monday through friday eastern time. lets just say i feel bad in advance for the poor bastard in the call center that gets my call.


estimated time from dallas to albuquerque 12 hours
actual time from dallas to albuquerque 19 hours


mercedes, oklahoma and continental can all kiss my ass