Busted flat -- AGAIN!!!!

No one is going to believe this. I hardly believe it myself. This morning, first thing, we headed out to buy supplies and check on a recommended tire company to check on purchasing a new spare. After that, we intended to travel about a dozen miles away and purchase a new wheel on which to mount the spare for, as you remember from yesterday, the old wheel was the wrong one for this truck. On the way out of the tire company parking lot I told Concetta, "You know, I'm just going to replace both the front tires on this rig with new ones and use one of the front ones for a spare." Concetta thought that sounded like a good idea.

So, off we went, back into Minneapolis to find the wheel company. Passing the spot where we were broke down yesterday afternoon we headed west on I94 with a stiff side wind out of the south to keep us company. Something with as much surface mass as a motor home is understandably harder to keep on the highway when the wind is blowing so I didn't think anything of the fact that the truck was tracking a bit strange. Finally, however, I told Concetta that something didn't feel just right in the steering so I pulled over to the side of the freeway. At that point the tire on the right front wheel tore through the sidewall and "walked" right off the wheel. Sigh!



















So, here we are, sitting beside the freeway, as millions of cars roar by a couple of feet away. Naturally, I called the tire guy to whom we had just been speaking and asked him to come rescue me. In return, I offered, to purchase a whole new set of tires for the rig from him. That deal was immediately struck, though he had to go a little afield to find two of the six since he didn't have them on hand.

Then I called the wheel company in Minneapolis and asked if they made house calls. "Not normally," was their response.

"Well," I said, "this is kind of an emergency."

After hearing my tale of woe, the wheel company agreed to send a wheel out to our rig parked on the shoulder of I94.

Soon after, the tire company kid arrived, removed the shredded tire from the right front and took it back to his shop. A half hour later they called and said that the wheel might get me back to their shop if they put a used tire on it, but it was bent enough to not be safe to put back in service. SIGH!

Soooooo, I called the wheel company back and asked if the delivery boy hadn't left with the first wheel, to please load up a second wheel because I was going to need two. This deal was also struck, though the the delivery guy was already a mile away from the shop at the time. The wheel people graciously offered to call him back to pick up the other wheel.

I'm not sure how this is all going to end. We're not stuck in Lodi again, but it feels darn close. Ironic that this coach came from Lodi, isn't it?