The best-laid roadtrips often get blown out. This story begins about a year ago when Barry and Jen had a tire blowout on the road to Hulaween. Once home, Barry replaced Bertha’s crappy “Chinabomb” tires with what we came to realize – yesterday on Florida’s Turnpike – were another set of crappy Chinabombs. A blowout left us stranded on the roadside – with one tire shredded and another punctured, and the brass fittings of the LP gas lines serving the fridge and stove sheared off.
#GoodSamClub roadside assistance arrived two hours later (took one look and immediately admonished us for not checking air pressure – something Barry does at almost EVERY stop). Tired of lousy tires, Barry spent the wait time calling a Goodyear dealer seven miles away to inquire about a set of five Endurance tires. They’re considered the premiere tire for RVing, al least by people who know the difference. “Bring it over,” said the shop manager. It was 6. They close at 7. We dropped Bertha off at 8, locked her up, prayed no vandals would pay a visit, and then treated ourselves and Barry’s boys (who were coming to #SoulshineFarmMusicFestival with us) to sushi and Thai. We then acktracked 45 minutes south to sleep at Barry’s, our original point of departure seven hours earlier.
Up at 6:30 this AM, on the road by 7, we called Bertha’s Palm Beach dealership about possibly doing the LP repair to damage caused by a blowout (the rep immediately admonished us for not checking the air pressure – sigh…) “Too busy,” he said (“but drop it off and we’ll gladly we’ll take three weeks and charge $500 for the job” we imagined him saying). “But try Mako Hose & Rubber.”
GTS’d to discover Mako is next door to Goodyear. We stopped by and the attendant looked at the trashed fittings Barry pulled from the gas line and said, “No problem. Bring her by.”
Meanwhile, everywhere we looked we saw plumbers. The universe seemed to be delivering an abundance of riches.
We fetched Bertha with her new shoes and 10 minutes – and $13!! later – the gas lines were fixed. Still had to employ a few bungees to make up for the hose harness trashed by the flailing steel belts. Gave the dude 50 bucks for his troubles.
Then we hit the highway.
And that was Day One of our roadtrip.