Daily Archives: Sunday April 7th, 2013

It has been a rough day overall. The kind that you have being dreading that was going to happen, did. So close to our destination and then what sounded like an explosion….we had a blow out.

An inside tire on a Sunday…..blah….what the heck is AAA for if there isn’t anyone around to help? So many calls, none of it helped. But at least we are here and are safe. Going to have to deal with it first thing tomorrow.

Buying used and such, you expect things to happen….but is it too much to ask to at least spread it out some?

A 6 hr 39 min trip according to google, we added about 90 more minutes to our estimate because it is an RV with a tow and going over mountains….yeah, you can’t go as fast as other vehicles. With the blow out we got here about 4:48 after hitting the road at 05:45 this morning.

We are suppose to do another 6hr 38min day when we leave here in a few days….I don’t think so. That is way too much especially with going through high population areas. I’m going to divide that up. I’ll be looking into that once I finish this up.

We are here at the very small RV park of the Castle Air Museum, in Atwater, CA. That was created on the Air Force Base that was closed in the ’90s.

I’ll save my first impressions and comments about the RV park part for when we take pictures and post about it.

For the overall feel, if you ever lived on a military post/base….no matter which branch….this still feels like a military post to me. There is obvious stuff like the fuselages they have in a field or the old ordnance they have for collecting dump fees….which bring back MAJOR flashbacks for me, since I grew up on an ordnance post. But even without all that, it still smells/feels like the military to me. I don’t know how to explain it….maybe it is just the Army brat in me that misses it so much.

One of the few positives today, really got to see the beautiful hills coming out of Oregon and a good view of Mt Shasta coming into California. =)

After driving 8.5 hours and only 23 miles from our destination, we had our first blow out in Turlock, CA on 99. Left rear inside tire. It truly sounded like a explosion. Lucky for us, we was only 50 yards from a exit so we was able to crawl off into a safe zone.

Unlucky for us, its a Sunday and we was 2 blocks from a Les Schwab and within 5 miles of 4 others and of course, all closed. After 45 mins of calling any truck stop/tire shop/any place that might be able to fix this that we could find on google, we decided to take the “back roads” to our planned destination. It only took 2.5 hours to go 30 miles (back roads added miles, but was for sure the smarter route and not the shorter route of 99)

The “great part” was we had a 3/4 of a gallon of Killz left that we planned on using in a few weeks as well as a pint of varnish, the impact hit the bottom of the cargo bay (water works) where I had them stored, the impact spit open the killz bottom and almost opened the varnish, it also destroyed our hummingbird feeder. Waiting on “rescue” I was able to clean the worst of the mess.

Looking back, I put all that stuff in the “water works” cargo bay for a reason. I was thinking spillage, not impacts, but the results are the same. We also have some minor damage to the exhaust pipe and area, not too sure how bad it really is, when the tire is fixed I will get a better look at it all.

It has been a long day. The camp host say’s there is a tire center “next door” that is open on Sunday’s, but apparently they just don’t answer the phone.
Anyway, The rest of our day will be relaxing and tomorrow, we will deal with it.

Turlock, CA – 04/07/2013 – Left rear inside tire exploded, the impact hit the cargo bay, destroying a 3/4 of a gallon Killz can. Lucky for us, the varnish did not open.

Turlock, CA – 04/07/2013 – Left rear inside tire exploded, the impact hit the cargo bay, destroying a 3/4 of a gallon Killz can. Lucky for us, the varnish did not open. The humming bird feeder was also destroyed. Lucky, I had a full tank of water to clean it up