Taking the long way home...

When we checked in yesterday, the concierge told us that the hotel was full. He continued, "If you want to take advantage of the complimentary cooked to order breakfast on Sunday, arrive early. Breakfast starts at 7". Ever mindful of this, we arose early, packed the car, and proceeded to the dining room. Already, some of the young cheerleaders who were competing at a local college had the same idea. We ate and never saw any of our compatriots, and took to the highway. Wanting to see if the country road next to the hotel would take us back to I-10, we allowed the GPS to route us. We saw more back country roads than we had imagined. Every 3-4 miles we would turn left to head East or turn right to go South. Surprisingly by the time we did reach the interstate, it hadn't added any time to our ETA.

Sneed had a bit of gout in his right hand that was bothering him. I thought that might be why he was having trouble keeping the car driving straight ahead - he was slightly weaving in our lane. I volunteered to take over. He pulled off at Schulenberg and we switched seats. When I started up and got back on the interstate, I couldn't believe how the wind was affecting the car. That was why he had been going back and forth. About 20 miles into my driving time, the car really started weaving back and forth, so much so that I told Sneed he could take over as I couldn't hold it steady at all. I pulled off onto the berm and fortuitously I had pulled a bit onto the grass as well. For lo and behold, the minute Sneed opened his door he realized what the new problem was. The left rear tire was flat and the rim coming unattached!!



He set about to change the tire. At one point he said, "I hope your phone is charged as mine just died." Oops, I didn't even have mine. As it was, he completed the job and we were on our way home in less than 3/4 of an hour.

OK... We made it home and breathed a sigh of relief, until..."What's that noise?" I could hear a hissing sound and it was coming from...you guessed it, the right rear tire. It was leaking air. Gee whiz! These were brand new tires and tubes that were put on the car the day before we left. Sneed took the two rear tires back to the installer and discovered the tubes were damaged. He had them put the tubes that were in the old tires into the new tires and so far so good. In the meantime, Marque is sitting in the garage ignominiously with his front end raised while waiting for the front tires to be retubed.


And so it goes...