Tire troubles

On a long trip you will spend some time in repair shops. There is some universal law that makes it so. Right now we are sitting in a truck repair shop waiting for them to look at the axles on the trailer.

This episode of repair work started as we pulled out of Folkston, Georgia. The only other camper at the "RV Park" stopped us as we were leaving to let us know that we left a slide out and that we had two low tires on the right side.  The slide was easy to fix but the tires were another matter.

This was Mother’s Day Sunday so all the tire shops in the small towns were closed for the day. We put air in the tires and drove to interstate 95 where we found a truck stop opened. They patched one tire that picked up a nail. The other tire was worn to the core in one spot. We mounted the spare to replace that tire. Both damaged tires  were shot and needed to be replaced but the truck stop only had huge tires.

We went on to he Skidaway State Park outside of Savannah. This is another fine park but there are lots of no-see-ums.

The next morning we toured Savannah. We took a city tour with Old Town Trolley. What a beautiful city!

Nancy Cleland told us we had to see the “squares” and walk along river drive.

 

This is the River Walk area in Savannah. 

The squares are little parks in the historic old town. There are 12 or 13 of them. The squares are surrounded by antebellum homes that have been restored. It surprised me that there were pre civil war homes still standing because I thought Sherman burned Savannah. He didn’t. He gave it to Lincoln as a Christmas present.

We ate lunch at the Shrimp House on the river walk. Really great food and fabulous Key Lime Pie (you’re right Rich, good key lime pie is not to be missed).

The Savannah River, Savannah, GA.

Brenda and I are covered with bites. On the Savannah city tour the driver said the Spanish Moss is host to these bugs. Skidaway State Park has lots of Spanish Moss. By the time we left, we were itching to get out of there.

The next day we took the trailer to a tire shop and got two new tires. At the tire shop they told us that the axle on the trailer was out of alignment and that is why the one tire wore so strangely. They couldn’t align the trailer axle. We called a camping world but they couldn’t fix it because their technician was injured. We tried another shop but they couldn’t get to us until Monday or Tuesday of next week. After placing several calls we located a place in Florence, South Caroline, to do the job if we got there by 10 AM today. We got here at 09:30 Am, it is now 10:30 AM – they haven’t started on it.

The trailer having its axle bent. For them to work on the axle
the trailer had to be backed over the pit on two narrow tracks
just 8 feet apart. I asked them to back it into position. I'm no
dummy!

It is Thursday now. The repair to the trailer went very well. The tires had a bit of camber to them so they bent the axle to fix the problem. We were on the road before noon and drove on to Wilmington, NC.

We are now in Virginia in territory we have seen before. We lived in Washington, D.C., for a year and used our spare time sight seeing. I lived for over a year in Pennsylvania and Brenda lived on Long Island for a year. Anyway, we have seen what we want to see of Virginia, mainland Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Also we want to avoid driving on the hated I-95 as much as possible. So we will cross over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tomorrow and drive to Lewes, Delaware, where we will take a ferry over to Cape May.

This trip we have been off the interstates most of the time. I really dislike driving on interstate freeways. They are filled with semi-trucks and therefore are potholed. Driving on them is boring because you really can’t see much. Then there are the potholes and debris on the road. I hate them. We avoid them as much as possible.

Today we did well avoiding interstates. We stayed on Highway 17 through rural North Carolina. It was a gorgeous drive. Some of the towns we drove through were home to now abandoned garment factories. A few of the towns were nearly ghost towns. There were big homes along the way, some plantations as well. Interspersed with these were homes people must have just walked away from. The forest is taking back many of those abandoned homes. All of this to see kept me awake.

A nice little picnic rest area along Highway 17 in North
Carolina. 

Brenda saw a sign the other day while we were in Savannah that is worth passing on:

DAVE’S CLEANERS

Drop Your Pants Here