5/17/06 (Wednesday): Wow—what a day! It was supposed to be a short (85 miles) hop from Mystic, CT to East Falmouth, MA. Following our usual routine getting the camper ready for the road, we noticed one of our brand new tires was very low—40 psi instead of 65 psi. We’d just bought and charged up an inflator pump, so we pumped it up and planned to keep an eye on it. We couldn’t see any nails or screws in it, but it was awfully muddy.

At our first rest stop on the RI border, we checked the tire again, and it was back down to 40. Trouble. We pumped it up again and got directions to the nearest tire store, which happened to be at the next exit. It was just your typical Firestone Tire store in a strip mall. Kind of a tight squeeze for a 28-foot trailer behind a super cab F150, but we managed. The kid running the shop was just this side of rude. He obviously didn’t want to have anything to do with even looking at the tire to see what might be wrong. He gave me a song and dance about how they didn’t have the right torque wrenches to put the wheel back on safely! What a crock! I may be an old lady, but I know you don’t need a special wrench just because it’s a 15” trailer tire!

Anyhow, he sent us across the street to a trailer shop, which didn’t have anything to do with tires. At least the guy there was nice enough to direct us to another tire shop (Rolands Tires in Swansea, MA). They couldn’t have been nicer. They took the wheel off and saw a bulge in the sidewall. They thought there was a separation, which is really not a good thing. They also noticed that all the valve stems leaked if you moved them. They speculated that maybe we’d hit a big pothole or run into something. We didn’t remember doing anything like that, but some of the campgrounds had some potholes from all the rain, so it was possible. They didn’t carry Goodyear tires, but they were kind enough to call ahead to a tire store in Cape Cod, which is where we were headed anyhow. They pumped everything up and put the tires back on and gave us some new caps for the valve stems (which we’d managed to lose somewhere in the process of all the checking of tire pressure). They didn’t charge us a penny, and they even called ahead to the new place to get them to hold the tires for us! If you’re ever in Swansea and need tires, I recommend them!

So we headed off on I-195 to the Cape. There was another tense moment when, with the turn to the Cape in sight, we saw a sign that said “Tunnel—No Combustibles.” As directed, we got off on Exit 5, but there wasn’t a sign in sight to tell us how to get back on the highway! Fortunately, I had my master navigator with me, and he wound us through the city streets and got us back on the highway, tire and driver’s nerves intact (more or less).

We finally got onto the Cape, found the third tire dealer (Sullivans), and they were as nice as the folks at Rolands! To make a very long story a little shorter, they finally got the tire off and found that it was a manufacturing defect causing the bulge. There were two radials too close together so that in one spot the tire was triple thick. They called the shop in Orlando that sold us the tires in April, and are making arrangements to get the tire back to Goodyear. They put in all new valve stems and told us to come back tomorrow to settle up—no money has yet changed hands! He said he would work it out with the Orlando store and we probably wouldn’t owe anything except a pro rated amount for the replacement tire. Whew!

By now it was almost 5 PM, and we couldn’t reach the state park where we were planning to camp, so we made reservations at a private campground. We’ll find the state park and camp there tomorrow night.

That’s it for tonight. We’re pooped. We’re hoping to go to Wood’s Hole tomorrow.