The long road west

May 3, 2007

We traveled on 90 - 271 - 71 and stopped north of Cincinnati at dinnertime to rest and miss the rush hour traffic.  One of the tires on the RV looked low and I checked the pressure and it was  about half of what it should have been.  We went to the next exit and filled the tire but saw the head of a roofing nail sticking from the tire.  We called our roadside assistance and they were extremely helpful and empathetic but said it would be 2 hours before someone could remove the tire and it couldn't be fixed until the next morning.  Even though we have the time, I still am working on the 'patience' thing.  I told him I would be happy to drive the unit somewhere.  It turned out we only had to drive back one exit (5 miles) and back the unit into their garage.  It took them less than 10 minutes to jack up the RV, remove the tire, patch the tire, put the tire back on and  lower the RV and we were on our way.  We picked up 65 in Louisville and slept for 4 hours in a roadside rest in Southern Kentucky.  We got to Nashville before the morning rush and took 40 through Memphis to Little Rock.   We called ahead and reserved a spot at the Arkadelphia RV park and arrived there at about 3 in the afternoon.  We picked up an hour as we are now in Central time.  The two day drives are grueling and we do not expect to do them very often.   We are now settled and  rested in Arkadelphia at a very nice wooded campsite.  Tracy called to say that Uncle Jim had passed away that morning.