This is the first time I've gotten a flat on my car. Whats the closest place that can repair flats?

Theres a gash on my tire that is about 1/2" - 3/4" in length. I'm assuming this is repairable?

If the gash is on your sidewall, the tire is not repairable. If it is on the tread, it may be repairable, but I would expect that the tire shop would try to sell you a new tire. I have had OK luck with John's Firestone on 10th and Pine for fixing a flat, and it is pretty close to campus. Just stay away from Wal Mart tire center and you should be fine.

Anything that is described as a gash basically means new tire. Especially something that is that big. Don't count on the tire being repairable.

I won't trust Wal-Mart with my oil, but I don't mind using them for tires. There's not really a whole lot you can screw up--dismount, insert new valve stem, remount new tire, set the bead, inflate, and put it back on the car. Just always go back and check the torque on the lug nuts.

Plus you can't beat their tire warranty. You buy a house tire, buy the warranty, and get a new tire at ANY Wal-Mart if yours screws up, and just pay the difference in treadwear. Saved my butt a bunch of times.

Of course, tire REPAIR is another matter entirely. I wouldn't get a tire repaired at Wal-Mart either. But I wouldn't at all mind going there for a new set.

I doubt something like that can be fixed, but who knows. Tire repair works best for small round holes. They typically drill out the puncture and replace it with a standard size plug then patch it. And if it's on the sidewall like Lucas said then it cannot be fixed at all.

Anyway, if you want to give it a shot, I've taken several flats to Plaza Tire here in town and they did an excellent job. You can just take your wheel and drop it off and pick it up later, then take it home and put it on yourself.

I went to Wal Mart for a set of tires a few years ago, as I desperately needed tires on a holiday for a road trip and they were the only place open. BIG mistake. My car has an odd tire size on it, and the only tires they had were Douglas tires. I got 30,000 miles out of them before just replacing all of them. I started noticing a lot of vibration in my car, and took it to Wal Mart to get them balanced for free under the warranty. It didn't help. I noticed a bulge maybe 1.5" wide and 24" long on one of the tires, causing the vibration, and making my steering wheel jerk back and forth at low speeds. I got that tire replaced, only to have it happen to another one maybe a month latter. With that happeneing to 2 of the tires, I went to an independent tire shop and got 4 new Bridgestone's intalled, and problem solved.
The warranty is pretty nice, just get a name brand tire if you go to Wal Mart. I prefer independent tire shops myself as the service is often much, much better.

Since my car carries a full-sized spare, would it be safe to drive 3 hours back home to have it replaced? Or would it be wise to replace them here?

If it is a full sized spare you're good to go, just make sure that it is properly inflated. It is only really unwise to drive long distances on doughnut spare tires.

The spare tire can handle the trip, but you're not wise to make that long of a trip without a spare tire. If you get a flat on the road then you're screwed. Why not just do it here?

I've driven 2.5 hours on a donut spare. The biggest reason there are speed and time regulations with those is because of the aforementioned lack of a spare tire, and (because the donuts are designed with compactness in mind) they are comparable to a motorcycle tire. At any high speed, most of the tread doesn't stick to the ground, and if any kind of challenging friction was required by that particular corner of the vehicle (evasive steering for the front, or recovery after an evasive steer for the back), the tire will lose its grip and you might as well be on ice. In town, and at low speeds, this isn't much of a problem.

I'll go check out walmart tomorrow, since it was mentioned a few times in this thread.

I've had good luck with the Firestone place.

I think I got Wal Mart tires once, didn't have any problem there either other than the tires sucked, service was fine.

I got my truck inspected at Plaza one year and that was a mistake. Took them about 40 minutes after I was scheduled to get to it, and then a little over an hour for the inspection. Absolutely no reason for that amount of time.

I'd stay clear of Plaza and Wal-mart.

Also it seems silly to have it repaired in your hometown.

Good luck.

Making sure your spare is properly inflated is good advice all the time, not just when you have a flat. It's something that I never thought of until I had a blowout on I-635 here in KC and my spare was also flat.