Driving to Tucumcari

I headed out for eastern New Mexico on Saturday, October 24^th.and got within 80 miles when I came upon an object (metal) in the freeway lane. I had a truck passing me so changing lanes was not an option. After the fact, it appears I had shifted enough for the right side of the RV to miss it but not the tow dolly. The tow dolly is one foot wider than the RV and that was enough. It shredded the right tire of my tow dolly (attached). I heard it hit but no sound afterwards (turns out that far back you don’t hear much or feel either). Soon after a pickup truck pulled up on my left and gave me an alert. I was lucky that an exit ramp was right there and I pulled off.  WOW, I’d been driving on the rim for possibly 3 miles.

I got to try out my Good Sam roadside assistance.  NOT GOOD!  I have (had) a spare for the tow dolly.  (Thanks to an old story from Rich and Clair Mortiz about their experience when their pop-up camper needed a tire.)  Good News/Bad News: I’d just inflated all tires before leaving; but discovered that the tire valve was leaking on the spare (turned out to be a bent stem valve.)  Still all I needed was a service truck to show up with a stem valve, and then inflate and mount it. Unfortunately that stuck the service call in between two Good Sam teams: simple tire mounting; and tire replacement.  The first operator (tire replacement) actually got it and tried to transfer me to the other team – got dropped.  Upon calling back the agent focused on finding a tire service (vs. a simple tow truck) that would send out a service truck.  Bla Bla Bla, no call back … Finally she decided the only solution was to send out a tow truck to take me to a tire center.  Not a good solution as I had the RV, dolly, and car and only me to drive either the RV or car.  The agent said they would tow both the dolly and the car – I wasn’t real confident about that but had no choice. After over 3 hours they finally dispatched a tow truck to a location 35 miles from where I actually was stopped.  Good news, the tow shop had been screwed by Good Sam before so they called me.  After straightening out my location the good lady (tow company not Good Sam) said “that seems like a simple fix, let me give you to my driver”. He said, “duh, why don’t I bring out a new valve, put it in, pump up the tire, mount it and let you get back to driving”. YEA!!!!! The smart guy showed as promised and in 15 minutes I was on my way.  He said the rim was reusable as the damage from the road was on the edge and didn’t affect the area where the tire seals.  NAH, I have to get the tire shipped from the dolly manufacturer (funky 10” tire that runs at 90 PSI is difficult to get elsewhere), I’ll just have them include a new rim.  ;-D At least my time wasn’t wasted. A young guy totally lost pulled up behind me and walked up.  He asked if I knew how to get to El Paso. A quick look at Google Maps and he was on his way. Then a flat bed semi truck loaded with steel drove across the bridge at the top of the ramp, stopped about 200 yards down the cross street, and walked back to me.  He asked if I knew the way to Raton NM because his map system had him going south and that didn’t seem correct.  A quick search and he did a beautiful U-turn with a big rig on a 2 lane road and off he went heading correctly — north.

<Begin Rant>

Annoyance: All day long I had two visiting flies in the cab of the RV. You’d think that during the 4 hours waiting on Good Sam, parked along the road with the window open, they would have left. BUT NO – a third one joined. Not right — I showered just a day ago; I can’t be “drawing flies” yet. Well, as I type I was successful in killing one of them. One down, one hovering, haven’t seen #3 recently.

And another thing:  why is it only the religious radio stations have the mega watt transmitters.  Jill said it is because “they are connected to a higher power.”  Ralph reminded me that some of them put the transmitter in Mexico where the wattage isn’t regulated.  Turns out watts have a significant effect on distance with AM but not FM.  Maybe they have lots of transmitting towers?  I’m guessing local stations only have a commercial interest in reaching an audience in the local area.

<End Rant>