Heading South

April 22, 2022

Ortono South Campground

LaBelle, Fl

I know, Dad said he wasn't going to head south again in Florida.  He also said he didn't want to travel with love bugs.  Been there....done that...and it wasn't much fun.  Well folks, this morning we headed south in Florida right as love bug season is kicking off.  

Today's destination:  Ortona South Campground

One thing about traveling in love bug season, you can be assured that you'll have a project when you land because if smashed bugs don't get removed, the acid in their smashed bodies will remove the paint on your vehicle.  Definitely NOT a good thing.

Well, Dad had figured that would be the only project for the day.  Little did he know, with 25 miles left to arrive at our destination, we got an alert from the tire minder....'slow leak in tire' on 5er, door side, front tire.  The alert occured at 80 pounds and Momma watched as it dropped to 78, 70, 60... more like a 'speedy leak in tire'.  

We were on a nice stretch of wide open, flat, straight road ....but it was only 2 lane with a small shoulder and guard rails, and that's all we had been seeing, except for the signs stating one lane ahead.  

 

We sure could have used this guy and his sign as we had to stop with two thirds of our rig still on the highway.  At least visibility was ideal and anyone traveling could see us from miles away.

Dad made quick work of the tire swap, getting the spare in place so we could continue on our way.  It's a good thing it was on the guard rail side of the rig.  Luck was with us.

So that created an additional project when we arrived: replacing the spare.  As it turned out, 

Randy's Garage made it a simple, but expensive project.  At least Dad was grumbling that if he had been home, he could have paid less for the tire. 

But then Momma pointed out that the last time he purchased tires, we weren't in the middle of this burst of inflationed prices we are experiencing with everything from groceries to fuel at the pump.  Maybe $270, which included mounting, taxes and all those other add ons really is reality in these current times.  We got a taste of reality when we fueled up at the pump.  So much for double digit refills. Triple digits is the reality of the times.

I'm Chloe