Got a Spare?

A few days ago I noticed the rear tire of our truck was looking really bad.  The tread was separating and the sidewall was cracking.  I decided not to drive it that night and took my car instead.  Low and behold, Sharla texted me while I was out that night and said the tire blew up.  Yep...it blew up.  The sidewall gave out.  Our neighbor's daughter was outside with her boyfriend at the time and nearly had a heart attack.  It supposedly sounded like a shotgun going off.

Here is a picture of the sidewall.

 The funny part was that my spare looked horrible and lost its tread previously.  So no spare tire.  I ended up having the truck towed to a tire place and replaced my back tires.  It turns out that the blown tire was 18 years old.  It was the original spare to replace my treadless wonder below.  18 years is a long time.  Maybe we should check the spare a little more frequently.  Oooops.