So after breakfast and a morning walk on Friday, we set off for Pagosa Springs. The GPS said it would take about four and a half hours to get there. Mark's back was still hurting a bit but he was okay.
We'd hadn't been on the road that long - maybe an hour and a half - we were just south of Pueblo on I-25 - when we heard a horrible noise. We thought it was the monster-sized motor home passing us but it was well past us and we were still hearing the noise. "Good grief - it must be us!"
Indeed it was! The rear tire on the driver's side had literally come apart. But it didn't stop that F250. It never wobbled - it kept soldiering forward! But we pulled off the road as soon as we were able.
In my opinion, we were in a dangerous place. We were off the road, but just barely. But people were going by so fast and didn't even move over. Mark's back was still hurting but it would have been too dangerous for him to try to change the tire even if he'd been feeling 100%. Best leave the job to professionals. Time to call AAA.
It took them an hour and a half to get there. And then the guy they sent couldn't change it because we didn't have some kind of key that you need to change the tire. (Often a problem when you buy a used vehicle.) And trust me, we tore that truck apart looking for it. Our kitties had to sit in their box by the side of the road and they were not happy about it. I'm not sure whether it was good or bad that they were both in the same box. (The zipper had broken on Heidi's crate and while we still had it, we couldn't put her in it with a broken zipper, so she and Harry were sharing.) Since the tire couldn't be changed, we would have to be towed to a tire store. (I am so glad I added the RV to our AAA membership!) Unfortunately, the guy they sent didn't have the right equipment to do that. We had to wait another half hour for a guy who had a truck he could load our truck onto and a hitch for towing our RV.
Once he got there it didn't take him long to get us loaded up, hooked up and headed back to Pueblo. The driver, Mark, me and a crate with two nervous cats all in the front seat of that tow truck! By the time we got to Discount Tire it was nearly 5 PM. Time to call Happy Camper and let them know to release our reservation to someone else. As much as we might have liked Pagosa Springs, it would have to wait until another time because we were still well over four hours away and we had a vehicle with a missing tire.
It was at this point we decided we wanted to go home. The sooner the better. After they put the new tire on we hitched up the RV and headed for the nearest WalMart. I didn't like the look of this WalMart but by this time Mark was in so much pain with his back, there really wasn't anything else we could do. We would leave for home "at first light" the following morning. It would take a bit over 15 hours to get there. But there really is no place like home - even if it is 100 degrees outside.
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