Seven years ago yesterday, I married the greatest woman ever at the Tween Waters Inn on Captiva Island. No downs. It’s been all “ups” and I’d do it all over again tomorrow if the Wakefield Room had an opening.

So in celebration of our Anniversary, we decided to have a date at one of my favorite restaurants on Fort Myers Beach – The Bayfront Bistro. We drove googly-eyed at each other, remembering the wonderful 7 years we’d spent together and talked about what we planned on doing for the next seventy…..until we felt the car jerk a bit to the right. Hmmm, I remember taking the car to get an alignment back in March, so why would it be pulling to the right? Something feels funny.

We slowly pulled into the parking lot at the Bayfront and parked. That’s when we noticed the flat tire.

::cue Price is Right fail horn::

Ok. Well, dinner’s on hold for now. Let’s see if I can find a place up the road to air the thing back up and we’ll be good to go.

So we slowly make our way back up Estero Boulevard with the flashers flashing until we stopped at a 7-Eleven. That’s when we saw that the tire had completely blown out and we needed to put the donut on. Ok, I’ve changed a million tires during my time as a road dog in the early 90′s. We’ll be back on the road in 5 minutes.

So we checked out the trunk. There’s the donut. No jack. No tire iron. Hmmm. Apparently when we bought the car (used), the previous owner (or someone) decided to keep the jack.

Great.

I could see Queenie getting bummed out. Not a good way to celebrate an anniversary.

I phoned a friend who said he could come help us, but it would be a while. I asked a gentleman at the gas station if he had a jack we could borrow, but unfortunately the tire iron was too big.

Then the light bulb went off. We were parked right next to Station 31 of the Fort Myers Beach Fire Department. I rang the door and was met by three Firemen who were willing to protect and serve.

And protect and serve they did. Andy, Jeff and J.P. from Station 31 jumped into action and saved the Anniversary. I was fully willing to do all the hard work, but…

….within five minutes or so, they had the tire off, the donut on we were shaking hands.

The Queen and I couldn’t be more grateful. What a great group of guys and shining representatives of our fine city. So to Andy, Jeff and J.P. from Station 31 – the Queen and I extend our deepest thanks. Thank you very much for your help last night!

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get to Bayfront Bistro since we had to head to the local tire store and have a tire put on. We’ll be back though.

…and Happy Anniversary to my Shell Queen. Love you. xoxoxo