Summer 2010 Part II

We didn't try to get an early start out of Foxboro because we would hit the morning rush on I-495 and in Hartford. The drive was, or should have been uneventful. My main concern was the traffic and shifting lanes on I-84 through Hartford. As it turned out, Hartford was easy. In fact the run was easy until we were less than half an hour from the storage facility in Chester, NY.

About 15 miles east of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge over the Hudson River is a rest area and we stopped there for a few minutes. I was a little low on fuel and decided to drain my spare fuel can into the truck's fuel tank. After completing this process, I did my normal walk around the truck and trailer and noticed that the curbside front axle tire on the trailer looked over inflated. I let air out of the tire until it matched the other tires and we headed for Chester. As we were crossing the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, two drivers pointed to the rear indicating that I had a problem. There was construction on the bridge and the right lane was closed so I pulled over in front of the work zone. I walked to the rear of the trailer to find the smoking remnants of the tire... we had a blowout. The tire destroyed the fender skirt, the trim around the entry stairs, took out the insulation above the wheel well, three sets of electrical wires were hanging from the insulated area and the moisture around the wheel well made me believe that one or both the water lines feeding the kitchen sink were damaged. While I was contemplating changing the tire, a Bridge Authority truck pulled in behind us with lights flashing. The driver, called his dispatch and asked them to send a wrecker to change the tire for us. All this took about 45-60 minutes (I was not checking my watch... just wanted to get out of there). Standing in the middle of the bridge gave us a unique view of the Hudson River but all I could think of was the cars and trucks that were going pretty fast through the area so that the trailer was constantly rocking. While we were waiting for the wrecker, I asked the Bridge Authority employee if he knew any RV dealers close by. He thought there was one on Route 17K, but he could not remember the name. Fortunately, I have an application on my Blackberry that found it for me and I called and asked if they could handle the repairs on the trailer. So we headed to Montgomery, NY and dropped off the trailer for repairs.

So ends another trip. Even though the weather was uncooperative, we did have a good time. We wanted to relax and for the most part we did. We wanted to see some friends and family in Lake George and Montreal and we did. We wanted to spend some time with our grandchildren and we did. What we didn't do is get many photographs because the weather just didn't make it worthwhile. We plan to be in Lake George and Montreal again in the near future and we will take and publish the pictures we didn't shoot on this trip. The trailer functioned without a problem during the entire trip. The tire blowout was obviously something we could have done without, but it happened and nobody got hurt. The damage to the trailer is not catastrophic and should be easily repaired and is mostly covered by insurance. I hope we can get the trailer back within a few weeks so we can take at least one more trip before we store it for the winter.