Wednesday July 31, 2013 Guerneville, CA.
That was the plan for the day
I had gotten closer to Winnemucca yesterday then I had wanted to, which meant it put me in a position to head on home in the morning. The trip would take a bit over nine hours. The concerns were missing the Sacramento and Bay area commute traffic in the afternoon, which meant an early start would be in order to do that.
So, last night I camped on the top part of the reservoir with my side windows facing east. That meant when the sun came up, it would warm the van real early and get me on the road. I was on the road by six PM for an early start.
It was a little over an hour to the freeway and then west on eighty. I gassed when I got near, but before the Reno area.
Just as I was heading into the Sparks area, I heard a loud POP, which was my right rear tire going flat quick. I was lucky there was an off ramp that had a pull over place for such purposes, at the top, so I was able to get over to a safe place real quick.
The question was, could I get the new bottle jack under the van axle, or was the jack too high? It just barely made it. I had the tire off and the spare put on in about a half hour. Real dirty hands, but a washrag took care of that. See, it’s nice to have your house and supplies with you sometimes.
The tire had completely blown out and was wrecked.
Here it is after I just got the spare on. I’m parked in a safety zone. Lucky for me Reno has been working on making this stretch of road a safety corridor or I wouldn’t have this nice spot to work in. Think of being right next to the highway lane with traffic rushing by only inches from where you are working? Yuck. Thanks Nevada for doing this safety thing. I sure appreciated it.
Here’s a close up of the shot tire.
Maybe I ran over one too many sharp rocks out in the desert, you think? :O) I kept thinking the freeway had some kind of weird surface that thumped, more then once, ever since I got on the freeway this morning. I bet there was a big lump in the tire and it lasted about two hours of high speed driving before it gave out. This wasn’t the tires first time out in the desert either,they have seen some tough use, they have been good tires to take the abuse I’ve dealt them. :O)
I beat the rush hour traffic, but it was still rather heavy, especially for one that has been out driving desert roads and come back to reality.
I left around six AM and arrived home around four PM, let’s see that’s ten hours with a half hour to fix the flat.
I unpacked some of the van and got my kayak stuff back on the car and am pooped.
Good to be home.
