Time for a change...

"You mean because you're getting ready to roll again?" you ask.

Thanks for asking.  We started the putting-away process this morning; part of that process is checking and airing all our tires.  We have 12 tires, plus 3 spares.  When I got to the inside dually on the driver's side of the motorhome, it had no air in it.  That is a problem.

We have a spare tire for the coach, but even in the Winnebago manual, it says to call for road service to have the tire changed.  We have road service as part of our insurance on the coach, but I didn't know if they would come change a tire if you weren't broke down on the side of the road.  The nice man I spoke with told me they certainly do cover that and said that someone would be here within 60 minutes.

A guy showed up in about 20 minutes.  In a small Nissan car.  With no jack and no compressor.  He had never seen lug nut covers (which most motorhomes have)... and he was the owner of that road service company.  It was immediately clear that he wasn't going to be able to do anything for us - he called "one of my local guys" to come out with the right tools, and said, "He should be here in about 10 minutes."  Then, he left.

The second guy showed up about 40 minutes later... with no tools and no compressor.  He said, "The first guy has about half my tools."  We sent him packing and called the road service provider again; explained the situation, and of course, they apologized a bunch and said they'd find us another service provider.

That guy showed up with a large flat-bed tow truck.  First thing I asked, "You aren't planning on towing this anywhere, are you?  We just need a tire changed."  He assured me that he was there just to change out a tire.  He has an onboard compressor (which is good) that he said, "Isn't the greatest." (which is bad)  He went to work, getting out tools... and had no socket that fits our lug nuts.  No, I am not kidding.  He seems very competent (where the other two guys from a different company couldn't find their ass with both hands and a funnel), and was again very apologetic.  He said, "I will need to go to an auto parts store and get another socket."

I opened my RV supply bin and pulled out the right size socket... unfortunately, it is a thin-wall socket that I bought for getting into the tight space of the water heater drain plug.  This guy tried it on our lug nuts, but he was concerned he would ruin my socket.  So, off he went to get another socket.

And, here we sit.  Good thing we started this process two days before we are actually leaving.

(sigh)

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Chris (the 3rd road service guy) came back with the right size socket.  I raised that side of our coach with the jacks, and he had tires changed out in no time.  He loaded the flat one in the Honda for us, and Joan took it to Discount Tire.  It had a slice in it, so wasn't repairable.  She bought another tire and had them mount it on our rim - it will be the new spare.

Chris is a good guy and offered to come back and get the new tire lifted into our aft storage in the motorhome, but I told him we could handle it.  Shook his hand, thanked him, signed for the service, and he was off.

When Joan got back, it took both of us to lift the new tire out of the back of the Honda.  I rolled it around to the back of the coach and we lifted it in.  That space is big enough that Joan climbed in (sitting height room) and got the tire onto the lugs that hold it in place.  We swapped places, and I grunted and groaned my way back to the tire and got the lug nuts tightened... and then we could re-load that compartment.  It was looking like we were having a yard sale with all the stuff we had to take out of that storage compartment to get at the tire.

Good thing we started early - this whole process wound up taking about 5 hours.  The cargo trailer is loaded; we'll need to put away our patio stuff (tables, chairs, and mats), and we'll be ready to roll on Monday morning.  We had plans to meet Steph and Dan for a late lunch before the tire situation... they were willing to wait and we finally got together just after 4:00... and we were all hungry!

Tomorrow, we'll get together one more time before we hit the road.  I will miss them, but it is time for us to get on down the road.