Disaster Hits

Where do I begin?

Gigi, five dogs and one parrot rolled out of Charlotte around 9:30 AM Friday for the 6 hour trip to Jekyll Island. It was the usual stuff...us yacking and the dogs looking at all the cars.

About 40 miles out I noticed rubber flying up. Could I have run over old tread from a truck blow out? Did I have a blowout? I decided to stop at the next ramp to have a look.

When I opened the door the air felt like a steam bath. It was already in the 90's with high humidity. Upon inspection I saw that sure enough...I had a blowout and quite a bit of damage.

I told Gigi not to worry that I would change the tire and we would be on our way. I looked under the RV to see where the spare was and I heard the distinct sound of my scalp being penetrated. I know this sound from years of EEG tests with receptors being plugged directly in my scalp. I fell back rolling in sweat and noticed my head was bleeding. I had plunged my head into a corner of angle iron.

I continued to set up to change the tire when I walked past a mirror and saw my face looked like a boxer on the wrong end of a fight.

In about 20 minutes I had the RV tire changed and we were on our way. I asked Gigi to call the insurance company about the body damage and I call my assistant back in Charlotte to call ahead for some new tires. After all it is my experience if one tire burst so will another. Better to be safe and get a new set all around even if it costs us some travel time.

Boom! Just five minutes moving and another tire blew. Fortunately my assistant had made arrangements about 20 miles downstream.

The tire guy came up and replaced one right in the rim by the side of the highway.

Meanwhile Gigi and the dogs cooked in the sweltering heat. The AC barely kept the cab in the 80's and it was close to 100 outside.

We followed the tire guy back and got 5 new tires and after a four hour delay we were on our way.

I decided not to go to the hospital for stitches. I was just too damn tired. Besides I think it closed and is healing just fine. Another reason never to shave my head.

8 comments:

none said...

Holy crap. Rotten tires will do that. sorry to hear about your misfortune.

Ken said...

Ohhhh! You better kick the rest of your vacation up a notch to make up for that. Dang!

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

Darn tires were only 2 years old with a few thousand miles on them.

mic said...

Do you take them off the ground and cover them while storing?

AmyK said...

You did everything you could think of to avoid a situation like that. It must be mojito time.

Jay said...

Try to stay cool the rest of your vacation dude.

terri said...

It can only get better after that. Here's hoping the rest of your vacation is relaxing and stress free.

Rock Chef said...

Funny - you sort of predicted the blow outs!

Hope the head is OK. Heads are harder to replace than tyres.