Like a Pit Crew...

We rolled through the middle of San Antonio this morning with no slow down.  Eighth largest city in the country, so you might expect a lot of traffic.  It’s timing - we were fortunate today.  We watched the local traffic report this morning (about two hours before we left at 9:00) and traffic was backed up for miles.  And gone when we rolled through that same area.

West on I-10.  This is the route we take when going to Arizona, so we are very familiar with it.  Today, though, we baled about 50 miles or so from San Antonio, heading north.  Driving through Fredericksburg, we reminisced about our time spent there last year.  Fun place.

It is hot again.  Tired of hearing that?  Yeah, I’m kinda over being in it… it’s why we’re heading north.  The national forecast looks like along about Sunday or so, in Kansas, we may run into more pleasant temperatures.  But, going across central Texas, it feels like an oven.

Since turning off the Interstate, we are on two-lanes; definitely away from civilization.  And, this is what passes for a 75mph road in Texas.

When we stopped so Rufus could have lunch, I did a few walk-arounds.  I make it a point to look over all three conveyances, the connections, and the tires.  Having checked tires before leaving home, I could see that one of our trailer tires was showing wear… it didn’t look like that when we left, so this is coming on pretty quick.  These tires have given us good service, but they are coming up on 5 years old… and this heat is taking a toll.  I told Joan we’d keep an eye on that tire and check it again at our next stop.

Turns out, it was hard for me to look at the side mirror to see that tire, because, after mentioning it to Joan, she had her head forward, watching that tire like a hawk.  All I could see was the back of her head.

More heat, more rough two-lanes, and now the wind had kicked up.  Some driving days are easier than others.  At the next stop, I could see even more wear on that tire.  Joan did a search and found a Discount Tire about 30 miles out of our way… plug that address into the GPS.  I do not want to have a tire issue out here in the boonies.  I called DT to make sure they had the new Goodyear Endurance trailer tire in our size - made in the good ol’ USA.  Yes, I am willing to pay a bit more for tires made here.  I made an appointment with them for about an hour and 15 minutes down the road.

Their parking lot was tight and packed.  I was lucky to thread our rig through there.  We pulled into a less occupied lot of a Burger King next door, unhooked the Honda and cargo trailer from the coach, and I took that to Discount Tire while Joan and Rufus stayed with the coach.

Yeah, they had the tires, and yes, they confirmed that they are made in the US.  A few minutes later, they had me back the trailer almost into one of their bays and two guys went to work on it like a NASCAR pit crew.  The estimate was 45 minutes… the actual was 20 minutes!  I have always been impressed with the people at any Discount Tire we’ve visited; these guys were like bees in a hive - a blur of activity.

As one guy was taking the second jack off our trailer, the other one handed me the receipt, shook my hand, and thanked me for doing business with them again.  I LOVE it when you get service work done and don’t have to wait for the paperwork!  Two big thumbs up for the work ethic and efficiency at Discount Tire.

Since we were unhooked, we decided to stop at a Walmart on the way out of town (San Angelo) to top off the fuel tank on the coach.  It was packed.  And, a theme: stupid driver day at the Walmart gas station.  I have no idea why people sit in their car for 5 minutes before they get out to start the fuel pump.  I circled the fuel islands twice, after sitting behind one such stupid woman, and Joan saw brake lights on a vehicle… yep, we got in behind them as they pulled away.  A snug fit for the motorhome, even with nothing attached behind it.  If we had everything hooked up, this would have been a no-go.

To add to the fun, the fuel pump kept shutting off every 10 seconds or so, no matter how slow I pumped fuel in.  No joke, it took longer to fuel up than to get the tires changed.

From there, we took a side street to get us back to the highway.  Apparently this street was last used on a cattle drive in the 1880, because there were pot holes the size of a longhorn… the bull, not the college student.  It took three hours to go about a mile on this street… yes, I am exaggerating - it took 6 hours!  OK, it only felt like it.  On the bright side, that awful rough street made the crappy highway we turned on to seem less rough than it actually is.  I am glad we have new tires on the trailer - I don’t think the old ones could have withstood the pounding in this heat.  The outside air temp on the motorhome was ready 99º.  With a hot wind.  A mostly deserted road where the other traffic coming up behind us was going 20mph faster that we were going.  It was easy for them to pass, since there was little other traffic,  Good thing, since they passed on hills, curves, and double yellow lines.

After a long day, we made it to the Passport America park where we had a reservation.  It got rave reviews on-line.  I’m guessing those were all from the owner’s family.  It was like off-roading to the only site we would fit in.  Lucky for me this site has no sewer, water, or electric, so I don’t have to set all that up in this heat (now showing 100º and there are buzzards circling overhead).  Having talked with the owner when we called ahead, we knew we were going to be “on a road in the park” and not on an actual site.  He had a 50 amp connect run to where we parked and offered to run a hose to us… “Not necessary,” I said, “We have a full water tank and empty holding tanks.  Just an electric hookup to run the air conditioning.”  He was nice enough, and brought some peaches freshly picked off one of his trees.  That will probably change my review from “shithole” to “very down home.”

I asked if we could get any TV with a powered antenna, since they don’t have cable and the trees here won’t allow any satellite signal to get to us.  He said, “You may get between zero and seven channels, depending on how your antenna is pointed.”  We get three; living large.  Well, not real large: we can’t connect to their wifi and the Verizon signal is slower than dial-up.

It may be a day or so before I get photos on this post. (one small bit of a signal - photos loaded!)