May 26 - The Day From Hell

What started out to be a smooth sailing day, suddenly went bad. For maybe the first time we set a departure time and made it, 8:00. We got up at 6:30 and were pulling out and waving goodbye to one of our favorite campgrounds and to some of the nicest people we’ve met and headed to Savannah, GA. We will be volunteering at Ft. Pulakski National Monument on the coast outside of Savannah for June and July. That should be an adventure in itself. We planned to check in with the volunteer coordinator by 4.

We were on track until close to noon. 2 guys in a pickup pulled up beside me and we indicating a problem. I thought on our morning pit stop we had left something open or unsecured, so we immediately pulled over. The guys pulled in ahead of us and said there was smoke coming from our driver side RV tires. The men all looked and thought it was either tires or wheel bearings. They said there was an exit about 6 miles up the road and they would follow with their roof lights flashing and to go no more than 40 – 45 mph. We exited at Johanna, SC. I have to say, that was the longest 6 miles I’ve ever driven. As soon as we got off the exit there was a closed gas station we could pull into. The guys pulled and they all looked and by now the tires had swelled up and were actually rubbing together and they figured that was causing the smoke. Across the street was a closed café and an open gas station. We were discussing our roadside assistance when we all looked directly in front of us and there was an oasis in the desert, a Goodyear Road Service garage. The guys said they didn’t know it was there. Bill walked over and caught the owner as he was leaving for lunch so he came over and said it wasn’t the bearings but the tires. So we thanked our good Samaritans and slowly drove over to the Goodyear. The good news was he could fix the problem, the bad news was he only had one tire to fit our RV. So we had him put the spare on and we put the bad tires that only had 12,000 miles on them in the bathroom in the RV. Yuck, it smelled like burnt rubber.

He told us in the next town, Newberry, SC was about 16 miles and they had a Goodyear store so we pulled into his lot and ate a quick lunch and took the back road to Newberry. Those were the nicest people. We put Molly in her carrier and Xena on the leash and waited inside while they put 4 new Firestone tires on, since they didn’t have any of the size Goodyear we needed. They moved the new Goodyear to the spare. With our last tire experience, we felt if 2 had separated belts it would not be long before the other two had separated belts so we went ahead and got 4. Now we had 4 tires in the bathroom. I plan to at least get compensation for the 2 bad ones. So we ended up calling ahead to the park and letting our contact, Ron Calhoun, know that we would be there pretty late. He gave us the gate code and instructions of where our spot would be to park and who to see the next day.

Luckily we had some water and snacks still in the truck so we only stopped for fuel and headed on to Savannah. It was about 8 when we pulled into our camping spot. It’s considered the new VIP (volunteers in park) campground and has 4 spots, all with full hookup, concrete pad, picnic table and bench. Really it’s a nice place. We are directly across from the Coast Guard Station and a short walk to the water. We can see the barges and boats coming and going.

Our site in Ft. Pulaski

We did what we had to in setting up and I microwaved us 2 Smart One dinners. I was beat. We were on the road 12 hours. Our one set of neighbors came over to meet us. They will only be here another week and a half. There are 2 other single men and one had to go home for a medical emergency and the other is on his time off. There is another couple in the old spots who are leaving on Sunday. There is no outside lighting so it’s good thing we have our rope lights and cactus to put out.

On the way in we saw 6 deer in front of the administrative office and an armadillo at our sight.

It was really not a good day, but we were safe and blessed that those guys stopped us or things could have gotten really bad for us.