We were not able to celebrate our 2 1/2 year anniversary very long… As we were leaving the Hollywood Casino RV Park near the town of Joliet, Illinois I stopped to dump at the dump station and to check out the motorhome for the day's travel. Earlier that morning we called our next planned stop only to discover what I had read on the internet was wrong (Geeesh and I thought everything on the world wide web was true) The campground had no hookups so we found our alternative, a state park nearby. So instead of driving our typical 80 miles in a day we would be driving about 35 miles.
So with plan B in hand we finished dumping and started south down the road.About five miles or so down the road I heard an unfamiliar noise as did Sharon. I was worried we had developed another leaking wheel seal and since we only heard the sound while driving slowly we pushed on... after all we only had 35 miles to go…
Every time we slowed the disconcerting noise would reappear but there was nowhere on our two lane Illinois highway to pull over. I asked Sharon if she could tell if the sound was forward or near the back of the coach. When she said it sounded like it was coming from the rear I became a bit more concerned since our problem wheel seal was in the front. When we entered the park and slowed down, we again we again heard the noise..
So I had Sharon drive the motorhome very slowly as I walked all along the coach and discovered the sound was coming from the rear tire area. I had her stop and when I checked it was obvious that we had had a blowout on the inner rear passenger side tire. Odd to have a blowout and not even know it while driving down the road. Odd yes… but also we were lucky that no damage was caused and that the other tire held up to carry the load until we got settled into our site here at the Kankakee River State Park in Illinois.
We made our second call to Good Sam’s Roadside assistance and quickly arranged to have a service rep come out to check out our situation. About 80 minutes later our service guy, Donovan, pulled up and in less than an hour had our tire replaced and properly inflated. I had a nice chat with Donovan as he replaced our tire and he told me his uncle had taught at nearby Chanute Air Force Base where I went to training school in the mid 70’s. It seems as if there was a good chance his uncle was one of my instructors… small world once again…
At least when the tire was fixed we were able to enjoy ourselves here at Kankakee River State Park. Although our site is electricity only (50 amp) the sites are very spacious and we practically have the park to ourselves.
They have an excellent 10 mile hike and bike trail that we were able to ride our bikes on. We rode nearly the full length of the bike trail which took us along the very scenic Kankakee River. There were lots of turnouts where we stopped to take in the views…
We enjoyed our nice and peaceful bike ride immensely and as we reflected back we are sure glad we had the tire repaired and were glad it was no worse an event than it was. Good Sam’s did a great job getting us taken care of once again and as much as we were happy about that we sure hope we never need them again…
We've had several blow outs. One caused damage to the side of the rig. You were indeed lucky.
ReplyDeleteOne of my ongoing worries. Tires, even new ones, can be unpredictable. Glad all went well.
ReplyDeleteVery glad you both are safe. What a scary thing to happen
ReplyDeleteWow you were so lucky. Glad for you that it worked out so well. Seems a lucky thing that your drive got cut from 80 to 35 today. Someone's watching over you.
ReplyDeleteYou've been giving some great recommendations for Good Sam roadside service. All the full timers seem to have Coachnet and think Good Sam isn't enough but they have done well for you. Any idea what caused the blowout? I assume your DOT date is less than 5 years on the tires.
Sounds like our kind of park. I don't care about water or sewer that much but having the place to yourself with nice trails and a bike path, sounds great.
Yikes, sure glad this turned out to be such a mild blow-out. Glad the roadside assistance was relatively speedy and efficient.
ReplyDeleteThe bike ride looked like a great stress releaser with a pleasant trail and pretty surroundings. I am originally from Illinois, but have never been to Kankakee.
We had a blow out on the 5th wheel today. Must be catching. We too were lucky with very little damage. A little rubber on the wheel well, a broken ground wire and a missing docking light lens.
ReplyDeleteThe RV Gods must have been looking out for us! Glad you got through with no damage!
Paul
Wow, my biggest concern whenever we travel the highways. Glad u & Sharon r ok & u were able to get the tire repaired quickly. Sounds like it was a puncture & this is what had to be repaired. Nice this could be done @ your site. Safe travels ahead.
ReplyDeleteWow, my biggest concern whenever we travel the highways. Glad u & Sharon r ok & u were able to get the tire repaired quickly. Sounds like it was a puncture & this is what had to be repaired. Nice this could be done @ your site. Safe travels ahead.
ReplyDeleteYour good karma was taking care of you. We have also been pleased with Good Sam.
ReplyDeleteI will join the others in stating that a blowout is one of my biggest worries. We replaced all our tires this year and have a monitoring system, but ya never know. It is reassuring that Good Sam put everything back in order so quickly. Glad it turned out well.
ReplyDeleteHave you thought of getting a tire pressure monitoring system, tpms? We got ours from plugitright.com, a TST product.
ReplyDelete