Randall County Sheriff's Department Saved Us.

Lubbock, Texas
Elks Lodge

Usually we have a routine for hitch up.  Today Bill broke that routine.  I was still reading my e-mails when I noticed Bill went outside.  I decided to wash my hair this morning and when I turned on the water, there was no water.  Yep, no water, no satellite and before I knew it, no electric.  I guess, I'll be going as is.  He was ready to hitch the truck on so I just closed the slides and went outside.  

It should be an easy trip to Lubbock.  We were taking I 27 south.  We were enjoying the sunshine and our audio book when all of a sudden we heard a pop like gunfire.  The next thing I knew, Bill had the coach stopped and we were almost on the side of the road.  Once again, thank you disc brakes.  

Yep, it was a blowout on the driver's side of the truck.  Bill immediately walked way back and put out the emergency warning cones and triangles.  We have two sets.  Texans have to be the fastest drivers in the country and that's saying a lot when we are from Arizona.

I tried calling Good Sam Roadside Service.  They tried to get an exact location from my phone but couldn't get one.  Bill again walked all the back until he found the milepost marker.  Good Sam called me back to say they had someone coming and they would arrive within 120 minutes.  The girl called me back and said the Canyon company cancelled the call and asked if there was another town nearby.  She kept trying to get someone and finally got someone out of Amarillo.  

In the meantime, cars were zipping by and wouldn't even move over into the other lane.  The truck shook ever time a vehicle sped by us.  

We knew we needed to disconnect the truck and fifth wheel but the jack control is on the driver's side.  Why is that?  Wouldn't it be safer to have that control on the passenger side? 

We'd been there about an hour when the an officer from Randall County Sheriff's Department stopped.  He was very professional and asked what our problem was.  We told him we had a flat tire on the truck and he took a quick peek at it.  

We explained that there was a drastic drop off on the edge of the road and we couldn't get off the road any further.  

 Bill and Officer Muntz

Officer Muntz put his lights on his patrol car so we could get to the jack control to lift the jacks and pull out the truck. 

We have tire monitors and that tire went from 68 psi to 2 in a couple of seconds.  

The next thing I know Officer Muntz is getting the jack out from under our seat and lowering the spare for us.  

He tried his floor jack but it wasn't big enough.  By this time, the road service had been dispatched from Amarillo. 

The road service had an air compressor and in no time the tire was changed and he hoisted the wheel in the bed of the truck.  

Officer Muntz waited until we were hitched back up and back on the road safely.  

All in all, it could have been a lot worse.  The sun was shinning, we were somewhat off the road, we were safe and no damage to the vehicle.  You can't ask for more than that.   

Bill pulled into the Elks lodge and backed into a site.  I was surprised how nice the sites are.  For some reason I didn't think we had full hook ups.  

We were talking with our neighbors who were also just setting up when a truck pulled up.  

It was Delcie and Freddy Prather.  We haven't seen them since Quartzite.  They have a new addition to their family--a Yorkie puppy and she is adorable.  I'll get a photo of her tomorrow.

There is a Costco two blocks away so we hopped in the truck to go get new tires.  The good news, Michelin tires were on sale.  The bad news, they won't have any before Monday.  Bill decided to purchase 4 tires because they discontinued the model we had and he wants them all the same.  The other good news, $70 rebate if you buy 4.  While I'm talking about good news, this Costco has diesel for $1.99 a gallon.  I hope this will be a trend and all Costco's will have diesel.  

By the time we got back we were both exhausted.  I walked over to tell the Prather's, we were skipping happy hour tonight.  

Turtle Safely.............