CHALLENGES

First of all, I need to thank my Father in heaven for keeping watch over us. This could have been so much worse than it turned out to be.

We only had about 65 or 70 miles to go on Saturday to get to Casa Grande so we were taking our time getting hitched up. Jim was doing the last thing on our departure checklist - checking tire pressure when he noticed an RV tire was low. So got an air compressor but then discovered that the value stem was torn and the tire wouldn't hold air. Got it pumped up enough to get us to a tire store and they replaced the stem with a steel one. Finally got on the road about 2:30. Remember only 70 miles to go.

We were headed down US 60 (which is a major highway around Phoenix) almost to I-10 and a different tire blew on us. Our tire monitor started screaming at us "FAST LEAK" but you only have about 3 minutes when that goes off to get over and with all the traffic there was no way. But the peope in the lane to our right saw the smoke from the tire and slowed way down to hold off traffic so we could move over.

The tire blew right where they had closed the exit lane because of construction on the exit ramp and had spaced the cones just perfectly for Jim to be able to pull through them and to safety on the exit lane. So we were really protected from the traffic whizzing by us. Like I said, things could have been so much worse. Nobody got hurt, the rig wasn't damaged and we were in a safe spot until roadside assistance could reach us to jack up the rig and get the spare put on.

Word of warning - if you don't have steel valve stems - get them now!

We finally got back on the road about 5:30 but by then we were exhausted. We needed gas and as we pulled into the gas station I noticed a casino on the other side of the highway. Guess where we spent the night. Wild Horse Pass Casino. Along with probably 50 other RVs.

Camping here was also a true adventure because we had the drag races going on one side of us and on the other was RAWHIDE, a true western experienc with gun fights and all kinds of noise. But we were so tired we didn't care. And I would stay there again. We did finally make it to Casa Grande the next morning, safe and sound.