Monday, October 1, 2007

The day the wheels really fell off!

Last Thursday, after a lovely morning at the park with some friends from Mothers Group, I met my Mum at Castle Towers for lunch and a bit of shopping. I had Beth and Barney with me so this was the first time I was to use our monster double stroller which sits them one in front of the other. We bought the stroller ages ago when I was pregnant and it had been gathering dust in the garage until I slung it in the car boot that morning. It took up the whole boot! It's huge - mainly because it's a 3-wheeler and the wheel base seems to be much wider than I remembered when we bought it at the store.

I managed to get the thing clicked into place and get the kids into their seats and find room for the masses of baby stuff I'm carrying around again. So we were set. Then I started to push the stroller from the car park into the shops and realised something was wrong. Flat tyres ... all three of them! Hadn't even thought to check that. So with much grunting and extra awkwardness I pushed the deflated stroller toward the cafe where I was meeting Mum. It was a relief to get there and see Mum at her table. But just as I was turning into the cafe, the back left wheel came completely off and the stoller slumped to the side. I couldn't quite believe it. I went bright red as the cafe owner came to my rescue and helped me lift the stroller to push the wheel back on. He asked me where I'd bought it. The truth is the store where we bought it closed down a few months ago so I told him that. He kicked the wheel and said, "It's crap isn't it". My thoughts exactly.

Red faced and sweaty I sat down long enough to fill Mum in on things and order food before racing off to Target to buy a tyre pump. Once the tyres were inflated again the stroller felt better but the bloody wheel kept threatening to come off again and we had to keep kicking it to stay on. Eventually it fell off as we were going into the parents room to feed Barney. A clued-up grandmother saw our predicament and she and Mum re-fitted some clip on which is meant to hold it all together. So we were feeling much more confident pushing the kids around after that. Unfortunately the tyre fell off again as I was putting the stroller into the boot when we'd finished shopping. So problem is not solved, though I'm hoping it won't be too difficult to sort out. What a pain.

1 comment:

Sara said...

Oh, Michelle - how frustrating! I had a three-wheel stroller once and the tires were ALWAYS going flat on it. Eventually, the stroller was stolen from our garage. I found an identical stroller a few weeks later not far from our house with the wheels missing, getting drenched in the rain. I wouldn't be surprised if it was my missing one and the thief abandoned it in frustration! Good luck with yours.