We were fortunate enough to actually depart on time, no weather anomaly delays! The morning was just perfect for traveling, good temps and bright blue skies. There was no rush to get going because we could have made this journey in just one day if we had wanted to, but we elected to do an overnight in Fort Stockton, at one of our usual Walmart’s.
Unfortunately, this route was the same exact one that we were marooned on last winter in the Great Texas Icemageddon Storm of 2021. It is fascinating how past experiences have effects on our lives today. I don’t lean the obvious, big-ticket events of our lives. My example today is this trip in particular. As I said, the weather was just fabulous, we couldn’t have asked for anything better! So, why was this trip (for me) filled with such a feeling of uneasiness? I finally figured it out and realized that the last time that we had been on this route was when we got stranded, and then when finally rescued, had to drive all the way back in those terrifying conditions. So much so, that when we retraced this route an underlying feeling crept into my feeble brain and sat itself down, right next to the “nice” feelings that I was having presently. My problem was that the “Bad Vibes” feeling was too fat and kept pushing my “Good Feelings” off of the sofa!
It took that whole day, and it was not until we got past the “Breakdown Ground Zero Point” did I feel any relief!
If we had done the trip all in one shot, it would have been a long one, 9 plus hours. And it would have gotten us down into Big Bend National Park by around six PM. The problem was that we did not have a reservation for that day. We had one for the next day which was Monday.
But that was good, that was the plan!
That left us with plenty of time to travel, no worries, no real timetable. The following days traveling time was in the 3-hour range so that meant that we did not even have to get going the next day too early, because check-in time was 1 PM!
This left plenty of time for Paula to make some nice Cinnamon-Swirl French Toast for breakfast and for us to sit around and wait for the Road Service Guy to arrive and fix a flat tire.
Yup, that’s correct.
Now, a flat tire on one of these rigs is nothing to sneeze at!
There is no way to carry a spare tire. They are way too large, and there’s definitely nowhere to store it!
Nor would I want to try and lift it into place!
That would indicate that I was able to get the lug nuts off!
As they say down here, a short distance from the Mexican Border, “No way Jose!”
The guy (Anthony, not Jose’) showed up with his truck and the requisite tools of his trade, namely a giant pneumatic jack and an even larger pneumatic air-gun-lug-nut-remover that would have made the guys in the NASCAR pits jealous.
Now the back story.
Remember back to last year when we bought the Life-Boat Honda CR-V to tow behind us?
Remember the little automatic-brake-jammer-onner system that we got installed?
Remember that the system also came with a nifty accessory to it that allowed us to monitor the tire pressure from each tire up front in the cockpit, displayed on a tablet?
Remember how secure I felt, knowing that I would always be protected from a malfunctioning tire by knowing in advance that something was, in fact, wrong with said tires?
Hah!
Was I ever wrong!
Because it was this system, namely the Pressure Detector Sending Unit, that gets screwed onto the end of the valve stem instead of the usual cap, that caused the problem.
How could that be? (You may ask incredulously)
Good question! And I am now in a position for me to supply you with the correct answer.
The Details.
I was sitting at our table early that morning when I heard a little ‘POP’ and felt the motorhome move a little bit. Mind you, everything can make this thing move a little bit. At the same time, I heard/felt Paula arise from her nights respite and start moving about. I chalked up the sound and movement to her waking up. End of thinking about it.
Until…… I went outside to re-attach the Honda and do an all-around inspection before we got underway.
The first thing that I noticed was that the right rear outside tire had broken its bead and was no longer inflated. Well, that explains that! The question was …… Why?
I never mind when something goes wrong except for the obvious reasons like its annoying and usually results in a delay.
What really gets me is….. Why?
Why did this happen?
When you get that answer, you know how to deal with it and are usually able to understand what to do to prevent it from happening again!
But this was strange one.
The tires were cold, we had stopped here in our favorite Fort Stockton Walmart the day before at 4 PM. The alleged offense occurred around 7 AM, a full 15 hours after we had stopped driving, when all was good, or at least it appeared so.
When the suspected perpetrator went “POP” I did notice (thinking back on it) that there was no release of high-pressure air, you know that loud Hissss that can be heard when pressurized air is released. This just added more quandaries to my mystery.
Anthony was not much help in this matter, although he was more than capable of fixing our tire. Which after re-inflating we were able to check for leaks.
Nadda, not nary a one!
Well, that’s good… but it left me with the more bothering question…. Why?
I called back home to Charlie at Tire King in Sussex. That was where we bought these tires, barely 10, 000 miles ago. Alas, Charlie was on vacation, but his son Dan got on the phone with me. I relayed our dilemma, reiterating that the tire appeared to be in great shape. He said that sometimes the valve stem can leak just a tiny bit and when the pressure gets too low, it can cause the tire to pop its bead. I explained that we had checked that already, so now the mystery would continue.
I went back outside and checked the valves again, conferring with Anthony at the same time. He agreed that if a tire lost pressure then it would definitely be able to break the bead. He also agreed that our valve stem was intact.
We were glad at least, that we did not need to replace the tire. Not only is that expensive, but it seems that there wasn’t any of our size in that region of Texas that day. It would need to be ‘imported’ from lands beyond. I went about re-attaching the valve stem sending units to the rear tire that had been worked on. The first one (inside) was just fine. But when I went put the second one on……..
Hissssssssss…………very slowly.
Ah-Ha! It seems that the sending unit had developed a crack in a seam (?) and was letting air escape! I screwed it off and called Anthony over and once again, put it on.
Same result!
Anthony concurred (not that at that point did I need a second opinion, but it’s nice to learn something new) so we did not re-attach the offending piece of malfunctioning hardware!
And…. I took all of his brothers and sisters off of the rest of the tires until I can speak to the Company and get some satisfaction.
I will now be checking the pressures manually once more.
Thankfully we were finally able to extricate ourselves from the clutches of Walmart of Fort Stockton and finish the trip down to Big Bend National Park.
Phewf!!!
Now we were on roads that were brand new to us! Which, if you are travelers, makes for a somewhat exciting journey. I said that these road(s) were new to us which was true. But don’t think for minute that they are new to anyone else around here. Especially if you are Comanche or Apache. These roads had their genesis as the old trails that were used so long ago.
By now, (if you are a regular reader of this blog) you have seen countless photos shot through the usually bug-strewn front windshield. These photos are of long, straight, and virtually uninhabited roads that seem to go on forever. Another premise that I have expounded on has to do with the vastness of out here, especially Texas.
Well, here I go again!
The road, US 385, leaves Fort Stockton and arrives in the Big Bend area about 150 miles later and is almost as straight as the proverbial (Comanche) arrow. For those of us from the Great State of Taylor Ham and Cheese (on a roll), this is like driving from Sussex County to Beach Haven on LBI, all on one two-lane road with nothing on either side of the road as far as the eyes (with sunglasses) can see!
Nothing as in lots of nothing.
Except if you are a desert critter, which then you are a something, but we didn’t even see any somethings the whole 3 hours on the road!
So, with our earlier dilemma-delayed exodus from Fort Stockton, we were actually only somewhat late getting into our site at the Rio Grande Village RV Park. We had assumed on arriving early, but you know what assume means….
Correct!
It makes a late person out of me,
And an informed reader out of you!
I could use many different adjectives to describe the vastness of this Park, all of which would be for naught, so I will just tell you that it was 50 Miles from the Park Entrance down to our site in the RV Park.
Need I say more?
And “village” is a very generous name for this place. It has the Campground and the Store. This is where you check in, get some souvenirs, and more importantly (as it seems around here) also procure your essential’s, as in cold beer!
It’s a good thing we stocked up on our milk supply before we entered No-Man’s Land down here because I’m not sure that I’d trust how fresh it may be!
We are off the grid until we get back to Fort Stockton.
Yes, that is correct. I will not be able to publish this until we return to some kind of civilization. There is no service down here and why should there be? With a lot of nothings around and the somethings not needing modern communication apparatus, it would be waste of resources to install a system.
If we really needed to get a hold of someone, Mr. Drucker up at the General Store said that we could come in and he’d ring up Gladys and she’d patch a call into wherever we needed.
It’s quiet down here.