North Carolina

On Monday, June 11^th we prepared to leave Greenville in a pouring rain. What a mess!  We were soaked by the time we closed up and hitched ‘Monty’ and drove over to the waste tank dumping area and drained the tanks. The rain continued to follow us as we drove towards Charlotte, North Carolina. At times it was raining so hard that the traffic on the freeway slowed to a crawl because you could hardly see the cars and trucks around you.

 

As we crossed into North Carolina the rain eased and finally turned into sprinkles. We only had thirty or so miles left to reach my brother Bob’s house when the trailer tire pressure system started alarming. We watched the air pressure in the tire fall as we raced towards the next exit. It seemed to take forever before we were able to exit and but as luck would have it we found a tire shop within a few blocks of the exit.

The tire that was losing air was the one that failed due to a cracked rim that happened as we entered Louisiana a few weeks ago. The rim had been temporarily replaced with a used Dodge truck rim and it wasn’t meant to

support the weight of our 5^th wheel for long.

Two new rims were waiting for us at Bob’s house! The tire shop put on the spare and we didn’t have to wait for our road service to come out and do it. We were back on the road in less than an hour.

It had been more than a decade since my brother and I had seen each other and it was great to see Bob at the end of his driveway as he greeted us and guided us in. We spent the rest of the day catching up and admiring all of his "Boy Toys".

Custom garage full of 'toys'

Cobra

Silver Corvette

White Corvette

1998 Ford

Harley

On Tuesday morning Jim and Bob, with much effort, removed the tires which were going to get the new rims, and took them in to have them mounted and balanced. Fortunately, Bob has a full auto shop with a lift for all of his ‘toys’… two corvettes, a Shelby Cobra, a 1998 Ford truck and a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

The two tires had to be replaced. One of them was under warranty because they found a defect while changing the rim. Guess we were lucky that it hadn’t decided to blow as the other tire was losing air!! What a mess that would have been!

Returning the spare tire to its place under the 5^th wheel presented another problem when Jim and Bob discovered that the pulley devise had broken. They removed it to see if they could repair it but ended up taking it in to a RV store and ordering a replacement which hopefully will arrive on Friday.

We have another major problem that will require a welder to fix. Jim decided that we needed to have a receiver put on the 5^th wheel to carry our generators. After bouncing across the country the support the receiver was welded to snapped. That has to be repaired because the receiver is now rubbing against our fresh water tank.  Grrrr!

On Thursday, June 14th we were all on pins and needles as, Courtney, my niece Gwen's 10yr.old daughter, had brain surgery to remove a non-malignant tumor. Gwen kept us updated through out the day with Facebook posts and a website, Caring Bridge.  Around 4 PM we found out that the surgery went well and the surgeon thought he had been able to remove the entire tumor.  Another MRI this morning should hopefully confirm it.

Friday, June 15th - The welder finally arrived, after he finished his regular job, to cut off the receiver from the 5th wheel and repair the damage done to the fractured support. The generators will be much safer riding in the bed of the truck again. When we return home Jim will be talking to the guy that did the original welding of the receiver and show him pictures of the damage caused by their shoddy workmanship.