9,000 Mile Delivery … That’s Our Federal Spending

At Sister’s House in Citrus Heights, Ca

Dad’s Hoveround sprung a flat tire.  Living in a Independent Living Facility, it is a long ways to the dining hall…and if you want to go to Walmart or CVS, which are across the street, one who is 90 years old needs an electric device in order to do this.  Wednesday night of last week he called to tell me to say that his Hoveround had a flat tire.  I went over on Thursday and took the wheel off, and Arny and I determined that the tire tube could not be repaired, it needed a new tube.  Two flats ago Arny found one eventually, but the last time it had a flat, same tire as this, Arny patched it.  Well, it sprung another leak, the tube just needs to be replaced.  A local ADA (Disability Assistance Store) could get a tube for like $30.  Amazon could get us two tubes for $10 plus change…but it would take 6 days to arrive.  Not a Amazon Prime item, but it was free shipping.

When I placed the order on Thursday night (the 5th), they promised it would be here by Wednesday (the 11th), yesterday.  So on Friday when I saw it was accepted at the Post Office in Fountainville, I knew things were on the way…good deal, and especially when I saw it arrived at the Philadelphia Distribution Center less than 90 minutes later.  However, when I saw 24 hours later that it was in Honolulu Hawaii…well, I knew we were in trouble.  As you follow the package route above, you can see that they say it left Honolulu on the 9th…but it did not get to Sacramento until the 11th.  Now on the morning of the 11th, before they posted that it was in Sacramento, I contacted the Amazon Vendor and asked them to look into the matter….after all, Dad needed his Hoveround!  (Well, actually, I took Marcia’s GoGo over there, which is just like mom’s, so dad had transportation, but the Hoveround is so much easier for him to get into and out of with his bad back.)

So, the Hoveround tire tube needed to travel a distance of 2444 nautical miles from Philadelphia to Citrus Heights.  Instead, it traveled 9,194 miles from Philadelphia, to Honolulu to Citrus Heights…assuming that the ‘PIGEON’ they used to carry it flew directly to each location and not through places like New York or Chicago on the way to Honolulu, or to Los Angeles or Seattle coming back from Honolulu to Citrus Heights.  Heck, I have never been to Honolulu, but Dad’s Hoveround Tire Tube has!

Here is the tire taken apart sitting on one of Arny’s work benches.  The tube to the right is the old tube…the new tube is on the box above and to the left a bit.  The hub is in two parts, and it all goes inside that grey tire to the left.

    

Above you can see how the hub fits, once the tire is put in place.  For such a small wheel, you would think this would be an easy job for one person…but in reality it much easier if there are two people, one to hold things in place while the other works on putting it together.  I was the holder, Arny the putter together man.

    

Above Arny gets the new tube in place, gets the two parts of the hub in place, and from there I am needed to help hold it as he airs up the tube, puts on the bolts, and airs up the tube to 50 pounds. 

I went back over to mom and dad’s, and put the tire on the Hoveround … all is good.  That was our 9,000+ mile fix job…all for a $5 tire tube…one must wonder just how much that delivery job cost the USPS…

Ready to Roll…well, almost

This has been my “go to place” for oil changes ever since I moved to the area back in 2011/12.  You drive in, and for around $24 the HHR would get done, and for around $30 the motorhome would get done...you don't even get out of your vehicle.  Well on Monday I drive by and see no cars, no garage open…pull in and see a note on the window that it was not open anymore, and they recommend a place in the town of Dunedin to the south called “take 5 oil change”.  Thank goodness I was in the HHR and just happened to be driving along because on Tuesday I had plans to get the oil changed in the Motorhome.  Back home I call ‘Take 5’ and yes, they can do the motorhome.  So Tuesday I drive to the motorhome, take it to Dunedin, and pull into ‘Take 5’.  Wow, this is going to be a tight fit…

‘Take 5’ bought out the ‘Havoline Xpress’ in the area.  This Havoline is now a Take 5.  You enter to the right, drive around,and enter the “pit” from the rear.  All is well except, with ‘Take 5’ comes a bunch of new equipment.  Also, look at that tight turn when I exit if I enter the far left bay in the picture.  Yep, this is going to be a very tight fit. 

They have me enter the bay in the middle of the building…that helps.  The new “Take 5” prices don’t help…it is going to cost more like $40 instead of the $30 I have been paying.  EXCEPT, they got me on the transmission service.  It has been about 35,000 miles since the transmission was serviced in Sacramento after we first bought the Dynamax.  So for a mere $120 more, they will essentially pull the transmission fluid out and replace it with fresh fluid.  There is a machine they have which does this, takes about 20 minutes.  In a sense since there is some of the old fluid still in there, it is more like a refreshing of the fluid.  But I still feel it is worth it. They offer a $15 discount on the entire oil and transmission change, so for $138, it is a deal.  Instead of pulling through when finished, I offer to back out, which is a good option.  45 minutes later, I am on the way back to the RV Storage area.

I guess this is a good place to mention that one of the motorhome tires was a bit flat.  Instead of 80 psi, it was down to 35 psi…not good .  It was the driver inner dully again…the one we had fixed in lower Tennessee last October.  The nearest Discount Tire is in Orlando…but I think someone must have played with the tire because I just can’t believe the same tire went flat…but it could be a nail.  I drive slowly over to the Take 5, keeping an eye on the tire pressure and the tire temp.  Going 30 MPH, and with the motorhome pretty much empty, I make it fine.  They fill up the tire while there.  It drops 3 psi on the way back, not sure if that is good or bad.  The next day, it is down to 55 psi…not good at all.  There is a Goodyear store less than a mile from the RV storage, and I stop by on Wednesday to see if they can look at it on Thursday…they can….9 am.  YUK!  I hate early appointments.

It is your typical Goodyear store.  He tells me to pull around back, which shares a driveway with Publix Grocery Store’s 18 wheel truck deliveries…but I get back there and parked without a problem.  Marcia follows me with the HHR, and after we drop the motorhome off,  we take her cousin Mary out to breakfast to a new to us Restaurant called Spirou's Cookhouse & Desserts, a now new favorite place which we will have to try out many times next time we are home.  The menu is simple.  The food is fresh and delicious.  The service was wonderful.  The company (cousin Mary) was outstanding.  And the desserts they have laid out on the counter…well, it was very difficult, but we did not touch them…much like Jimmy Carter never touched that female that he said he lusted after when he was President.  Only in our hearts and dreams….  Ya, they looked that good.

2 hours later, Goodyear is done.  Yes, the tire’s valve stem was bad.  The guy said it couldn’t have been changed six months ago.  THAT’S when I remember…when the tire went bad in Tennessee, we pulled into a Cracker Barrel.  Called our road service, guy comes out and puts the spare on the inner driver’s side, and we drive on until we came to a town with a Discount Tire store.  We spent the night in a Cracker Barrel there, then went to Discount Tire where they fixed the valve stem the next morning. They ask me if I want it back on the driver’s side dully, or on the spare…I tell them to make it the spare.  Hence, the same tire bad now is not the same tire as then…just the same location.  This stem, put on a few years ago outside of El Paso Texas, just did not set right.  All is well…and I verified that the tire pressure sensor system is now working on all ten tires. 

Sunday after church I will bring the motorhome over the RV-Mobile Home park next to us (bottom left red mark).  Our condo is located up in the upper red mark area.  Yes, it is that close.  It is too bad they don’t have any winter parking for motorhomes, because that would just be too convenient.  I turned the refrigerator on today, so tomorrow I will run the generator for an hour or so while I take clothing and a few other things over to it.  Sunday we can get the stuff in the fridge, and essentially take anything we wish over to it since it will be so close.  Monday we will wake up, take long, very long, showers (anyone who travels in an RV gets that one) by noon we need to pull out of the RV park, load the rest of the stuff up while it sits in the condo driveway, eventually we will be off and running.

This Time….Motorhome Tire!

Between Van Horn and Fort Hancock Texas, we heard a noise that sounded like something fell out of place on our counter top area, or refrigerator, than a slight rattle.  Marcia got up, I slowed down to 45 (we were only going our normal 60), within 30 seconds or so, a BAM!  At that point, I knew it was a tire, just wasn’t sure which one.

It was the outer passenger side tire.  Even after the BAM there was not a whole lot of vibration until I really slowed down.  After looking over things, I decided that I needed to be less than a tenth of a mile further down the highway so that I could pull further off the highway, but still be in good spot for the tow truck driver that I knew we would have to call.

We have Blue Sky RV Insurance which includes Roadside Assistance.  I give them a call, and although that process took 15 minutes, within 25 minutes we knew we had a tow truck on the way, and 20 minutes later he was there, and 30 minutes later we were on the road.

Blue Sky had called R & S Tire & Mechanic Service, and a nice Hispanic man came out and took care of us.  Although I asked his name, I did not write it down….he was super nice.

We carry a spare on the back, and after getting the cover off I look for a tire date.  This tire has never been used, but is ten years old.  We cannot use it safely for very many miles.

So tomorrow we are going to this Discount Tire Store in Canutillo, Texas.  We are at a Good Sam’s RV park near by which is costing us $23 for full hookups, including around 100 TV stations on cable.  Our current tires are only 4 years old, but since we have had the motorhome for less than a year, and have no idea how it was stored, we are thinking that we might put new tires on tomorrow instead of waiting another couple of years…especially since Alaska is on our radar…as is a tire pressure monitoring system.

For the most part, Easter Sunday highway at 9 am was pretty bare.  There were a few trucks who blew by that, because they were being passed at the time, were unable to move over into the inner lane...but other than rocking the motorhome a little bit, all was well.

So we are staying at the Gaslight Square Mobile Homes Estates and RV Community.  It is a mobile home park,  but they dedicate a small area near the entrance for this RV park which holds about 25 RVs.  Not the ideal place to park, but ok for the night.....sure hope to be back on the road tomorrow.

Near San Antonio, Shredded Tire Follow-up

After I-12 re-joins I-10 in Baton Rouge, we quickly find ourselves on the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge.  I look at this long stretch of road and wonder, “What if the tire had blown here?”

At Lake Charles we cross over the Calcasieu River Bridge.  Again, I wonder, “What if the tire had blown here?”

For many months I have been contemplating the purchase of a Tire Pressure Monitoring System like the one above from Amazon.  I have had this in my cart as a “might buy later” item…the price has held firm for months.  But this system looks like it would work well with us…the motorhome has six tires, the HHR has four.   Looks like it might be a purchase once we get to Sacramento.
Forgot to mention yesterday that when I pulled off the shredded tire, I see this metal wire hanging down from the wheel well…..it was a part of a standard clothes hanger!  Guy at Walmart felt that it was picked up by the tire on the road, worked into the tire and BAM!  The “bam” probably blew it right into the wheel well.

We are at a rest area just shy of San Antonio, where we are meeting Jim and Carol at a Cracker Barrel in the morning.  Our only difficulties today were the hard roads in a portion of Louisiana and a small part of Texas, and the Houston Traffic at 3 pm…..which was better than a few rush hour trips we have made in the past.  After breakfast, we hope to get to the west side of Texas, and into a RV park hopefully on Sunday, no later than Monday.  With all the bending and kneeling I did yesterday, I woke up to a stiff left knee again much like I had last year after planting my mom’s garden….but not as bad.  Hoping the knee will be better in a few days.

Shredded us a Tire

Got up around 6 am, made some coffee and got on the road. Every time I make the drive from Tarpon Springs area to I-10 by Tallahassee, it just seems to take longer and longer each time.  We normally try to stop for gas at Pilot / Flying J truck stops because they typically have RV pumps, a 3 cent discount, and good coffee.  By 11:30 we were pulling out of the Flying J just west of Tallahassee, and by 1 pm it was again 12 noon because of the time change.  An hour later I was pulling into a rest area a little over half way to Pensacola for a wee bit of rest.  90 minutes later we hit the road again after I did a check around the motorhome and the car.  I even kicked all the tires….all was fine.

So now it is 2:30 and I am pulling out headed for Pensacola…..by 3:00 we were sitting along side the road with a shredded driver’s side front tire on the HHR.  There I was driving along minding my own business….then a motorcycle passing motions to me that something is wrong.  I look in the back-up camera and out the driver’s mirror just in time to see a small chunk of tire fly out onto the road.  I slow down wondering what tire it might be because I don’t feel a thing on the steering wheel.

I tell Marcia that we lost a tire, and I think she started looking for a full tire, rim and all, rolling along the road.  I stop, get out and do a walk around and see the shredded, and I mean shredded tire…..very little left.  My first thought, “Could they put another tire on that rim or were we in for a long day?”

I un-hooked it, drove it along the grass to just in front of the motorhome where the left front tire was just on the pavement giving lots of room to work.  I have to unload the GoGo, the ladder, and other items from the car, and finally get to the tire.  (See below for funny story…)  All this time Marcia is wondering why we are not calling AAA, but something tells me that it is best just to put on the donut tire a head for a Walmart.  Thank goodness that I have an electric tire pump because the donut needed air too.

Marcia drive the car, following me in the motorhome to a Walmart 10 miles away in Crestview, Florida.  At first I did not know if they had an auto section, but I was directed to the far back of the store.  I walk into a fairly hard scene.

Three people did not come to work today, well two because one had been fired earlier in the week but nobody covered the shift.  It had been a long hard day for them, it was just after 4, and they had put up a sign saying they were closing at 5 due to technical difficulties. 

There was one customer there who was beyond upset…they had hurt is van when they jacked it up.  His mother died early last month, her ashes, dad’s ashes, and all they owned was packed in the van….he blew a tire (probably due to the heavy load) and now they hurt his van.

With us, however, everything went smooth.  The guy looked at the rim and said it would be no problem.  Then they had to locate a tire, which they did.  Then they had to locate a sensor valve stem that the HHR automatically has , which he did.  Told me that part would run $49….I said no problem. 

Ninety minute later we were ready to go.  And because I had road hazard coverage, the total for the bill for this tire, which replaced a tire we bought last May in Sacramento, was…….$10 plus change.  The guy said it even covered the valve stem, which surprised both of us.  We were back on the road before 6 pm.
Tonight we are at the Mississippi / Louisiana boarder at a rest area near a NASA Infinity museum, lab, or whatever it is.  Tomorrow we will easily make the outskirts of San Antonio, unless there is another blow out, and we have breakfast scheduled with my oldest brother Jim and his wife Carol at a Cracker Barrel that has RV parking for Saturday morning. 

FUNNY STORY
Back in 2011, the year Marcia and I married, I was to have my first Colonoscopy.  On the way up to Little Rock, after all that prep time, we blew a tire in the HHR, which we only had for a few months at that point.  I KNEW that we did not have a spare, called AAA who towed us to Little Rock, and I canceled the appointment with a sad, sad heart (and butt, if you know what sitting on the John all night is like.)   A few weeks later we are up in the Kansas City area where mom and dad lived at the time….and dad went with me over to a junk yard to get a spare tire.  The guy finds one, and as watch him get it I am like, “OH NO…..I DID NOT KNOW THAT PART OPENED UP TOO….I’LL BET YOU ANYTHING THAT I HAVE A TIRE THERE AFTER ALL!!!!”  And yes, there was a tire under a plastic piece, which is under another plastic piece which I guess forms the trunk.  To me, it was like a hidden compartment.   Of course, Dad had to be with me, and he never let me forget it.  Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention on April 1st that it was Dad’s birthday…..no joke….Happy Birthday Dad....now that I took that story away from you.