Tire Problems

Location, Gallup, NM

We left Fort Sumner shortly after 8 AM as we had about 300 miles to drive today. We stopped in Santa Rosa on Interstate 40 for fuel. I couldn’t get to the pumps at Shell so went across the road to Love’s. Again, the RV diesel pumps are poorly located. They were on the car islands facing the station. I made 2 passes around the islands to get to the pump. Sheesh!! Why can’t they figure that out? RV’s need more room to maneuver.

We drove west on I-40 to somewhere near Grants and stopped at an Indian Casino truck stop for lunch. The amount of trucks on I-40 is unbelievable. Mile after mile of them. We also had wind from the southwest all day which didn’t help the fuel mileage or the speed. After lunch as we were getting in the truck, I noticed a round bulge on the truck driver side rear tire. I call it my bad luck tire as I have replaced the valve stem, repaired a nail puncture and now the bulge. The only recourse is to put the spare on which I don’t really trust as it is old. It looks like the original spare that came with the truck but has really good tread. I unhooked the trailer so I didn’t need to lift all that weight with the jack. I had the tire changed within a few minutes and we were ready to go.

We encountered a few rain showers east of Gallup but the sky to the west of Gallup was black. We pulled into USA RV Park west of Gallup and just pulled into our site when the rain started. We waited in the truck for the shower to pass and then hooked up the utilities. I no sooner got that done and it really rained hard along with pea size hail. After our problems a few years ago in Texas, I hate hail. It sounds like the skylights are going to come in.

When we opened up the rig Clyda discovered the sink had dropped on one side in the kitchen. Investigation showed the metal clips had bent from the weight of the thinks we carry in the sink while traveling. I will remove the clips and re-bend them for now but long term, they need to be replaced. Again, another place where the manufacturer skimps.

The park has WiFi but it doesn’t reach our trailer so I drove to the park office and used the laptop in the truck to download email. I will send the replies in the morning. This campground is full, in fact the guy in the office said he had 125 rigs in here last night. For all the people here it is very quit. I think all those old people go to bed early. Ha-ha.