Our vacation this summer was to the Oregon Coast, to visit friends, family and favorite places. This is a recount of our trip. Its too hard to try and put everything into ONE blog, so its going to take a few. Here is Part 1.
Part 1 - Day 1
Travel from Home to Lincoln, NE. Simple enough right? Justin had to work from 2am to 3pm and the plan was that I would have everything packed so all we had to do was hook on and go. I would venture to say that for the most part... that's the way it worked! I felt like dog poo on the bottom of a tire that keeps getting run over and over and over...Praying against all hope that those antibiotics would be kicking in shortly! So, Justin comes home and within an hour, we are on the road. We made it to Lincoln in fairly short order. Only to discover that I didn't print the correct directions on how to get to the park we were supposed to be staying at. No biggy... the next gas station we saw, I stopped and asked for directions. I can do that because I have indoor plumbing! We get there, set up camp for the night and crash.
Day 2
We wake up early, eager to get on the road, and it is POURING down rain. Had been raining for most of the night too. Such a wonderful way to start your vacation right? It took us a bit longer to pack up because of the rain, but we managed and was on the road by 9am. We made it across Nebraska without any problem and had starting climbing the mountains in Wyoming by 6pm. Still had another 3 hours to go. Then a tire blew...
I had about a minute warning that I had to PEE. I told Justin to peel off at the next rest stop, which luckily was about a mile down the road. We get to the bottom of the off ramp and he stopped and asked me, "Do you need to go now? or can you hold it until we go the two miles back to the rest stop?" (The rest stop was about 2 miles back after a hair pin turn from the off ramp.) I said that I had to go NOW. As I grabbed the camper keys from the cup holder and jumped out of the truck. I made my way back to the door of the camper and was trying to get the steps out while trying not to pee my pants and was having a hard go of it. The steps were stuck and very stiff, not a normal thing! I make it inside and went potty. It was upon exiting the camper that I noticed the tread was GONE off the tire itself and that the tire would pop at any second. I ran back up to the truck and told Justin what was going on. We decided to try our luck at limp it to the actual rest stop itself. so we could work on this on a flat surface and not half hanging on the side of the road. The actual rubber tread had wrapped around the Axel about 4 times and gave Justin a fit trying to come off. So, I called my mom to have her look for a place for us to stay at the next closest town, because we were not going to get much further down the road. Blake and Logan were crying, I was on the phone with mom and Justin was harping directions at me and yelling for tools from the truck... I ended up in tears, the stress of it all at once was too much. I got off the phone with mom, soothed the kids as best I could and retrieved the tool the Justin needed. About that time an Emergency Roadside Assistance guy pulls up beside and asks if we needed any help. Mind you this has been an hour of trying to get this tire undone and finally help arrives! I was able to go and tend to the kids and Justin and this stranger were able to get the rubber off and the new tire on. I called mom back and said, "You were praying for us weren't you." She replied with, "Yes. Why?" "Because not even 90 seconds after I get off the phone this guys shows up to help!" A true answer to prayer!
We drove another 20 miles into town to Rawlins, WY and got a motel room. It was cold, and late and we had not had supper yet and the last thing we wanted to do was mess with the camper anymore!
Day 3
New tire in the bed of the truck and we are on the road again. Pushing for all we are worth to make it Oregon. The rest of Wyoming was uneventful. Then we get to Tremonton, Utah and Poosh! ANOTHER TIRE ON THE CAMPER BLOWS OUT! This time the tread went flying off and we were able to change it and be back on the road in ten minutes. Had to detour through town to a tire shop so we could buy yet another spare tire!
We pushed and pushed and pushed until 10:30pm and made it to Fruitland, Idaho. We had to stop for gas and had made the decision that if there was a campground close by, we would stop for the night, if not, we would keep going until we found one. Turns out, this particular gas station had a campground attached to it! So, we stayed the night.
Day 4
Up early. Driving, driving, driving... made it through to Portland, Oregon around 2pm. Finally made it to Bandon at 8:30pm.
1804 miles, 18 stops for fuel, 2 tires, and 4 crabby people!
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