Always an adventure.....

We are on our last leg of our trip back to Maryland and what an adventure it has been. Couple of things to note first, We normally take I-81 north, less traffic but more mountains. Due to the late winter weather, we opted to take I-95 (UGH) this time around. Shorter trip, flat terrain and we could drive shorter days so we'd arrive less tired.

Well, you know the saying about the best laid plans. Sigh.... We left Vero Beach, FL on Wednesday after a great time visiting family. The weather was good and we hit the road around 11:30 am. We hoped to make it to the north side of Jacksonville that first night but it wasn't to be. Around 2pm the rearmost passenger tire on the trailer blew. Not a pretty sight...did some body damage, too.

Stu managed to get the spare mounted and the awning arm secured and we headed to the closest Flying J for the night. I think that was Hastings, FL, south of Jacksonville. We had a great parking spot, ate at Denny's and got a good night's sleep. The next morning Stu took another look at the rearmost tire on the other side and didn't like how it looked. Next step, Goodyear, for two new tires.

[more photos here]

Note that these tires are barely three years old but have probably 40k miles. Being in the back, they seem to take the worst beating. We replace the frontmost tires on both sides when one of those blew last spring (due to something in the road).

Anyway, another late start to the day being 1pm before we really got rolling. We stopped at the Flying J in Brunswick, GA for the night and had another great parking spot. Seems like the ones on I-95 are more geared towards RV parking than the ones we've used on I-81.


Day three on the road, Friday, and we made it to Latta, SC and another Flying J. This time there was a large dirt parking area, we were the second ones in. We've been getting off the road around 4pm when possible due to the holiday weekend. Seems like everyone is heading back home at the same time. LOL!

So here it is Saturday and we're just outside Washington DC. Initially we had planned to head to Kent Island and park in our stepdaughter's driveway. Well, we now have an appointment in Beltsville, MD on Wednesday to get the RV body work evaluated. We're hoping we can get it done while we are in Ecuador. Rather than head all the way East to come back over for that appointment, we made a reservation at the Capital KOA. PRICEY but with the cost of fuel, maybe not. LOL! We have doctor appointments in the Annapolis area on Monday and Tuesday.

So it was good that we chose the shorter trip, we haven't had to kill ourselves driving AND we had good weather all the way up. The thought of having that blow-out in the mountains with ice, snow and cold. Brrrr.....