Back On The Road Again?

Back On The Road Again?

July 23, 2017

Today, our road trip was leaving California, but the morning set the tone for the rest of the day. One of our ThirdWeekender camper friends had a stroke and required air flight to the hospital accompanied by his wife. One of our other campers quickly called the EMT’s. The whole process from discovery to air flight took about 30 minutes which amazed all of us since we were in a county campground over an hour from San Diego.

After saying goodbye to our friends, we headed East on Interstate 8 to El Centro where we switched to a two lane highway 78 headed toward Blythe, CA. It was well over 100 degrees but Ray, I, and our cat and dog were quite comfortable in our air conditioned truck. Around 3 pm, we had just pulled off the road for a doggie potty break and drove less than a mile when we heard a loud BANG!

In the mirror, we saw that our trailer fender extended away from the trailer, flapping in the breeze. Ray pulled off the road. We discovered our tire had a blowout and we were about 40 miles south of Blythe.

Blown trailer tire on the road to Blythe, CALuckily, the only other damage was the bent fender, which was plastic and looked mendable. Shortly after Ray placed the emergency cones on the road, a Border Patrol vehicle pulls up behind us with three young officers. It’s a little intimidating when three men in uniform with guns walk toward you.

The men were very helpful.  They even helped Ray with turning the lug nuts and raising the spare tire into place. They also managed the traffic during the repair. When we finished changing the tire, one of the men took pictures of us with his fellow officers.  Then they headed toward Blythe with well wishes and safe travels.

We were happy to be out of the heat and on the road again. It was short lived. In about an hour, we turned onto the interstate 10.   A driver, passing us, indicated trouble with our rig. Ray eased onto the shoulder.  We thought the fender came loose, it turned out to be a flat tire.

As Ray relayed this to me in the truck, a small car pulled over in front of us with two men in it. Ray mumbled dismay wondering what they could possibly want.  As the men walked toward us, we recognized them as two of the Border Patrol Officers who helped us before, but they had changed into their “civies”. They said they recognized the rig and thought they would offer us a ride. Had we known what we were about to learn, we would have gratefully taken them up on the offer.

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