This could have been really bad (2 flat tires 2 days apart)

After we launched back on the road for Season 5, we took a few weeks to reach our first "big dot" on our itinerary: Fort Myers, our jumping off point for visiting Anthony's family. Of course, "big dot" is a loose term this year, because we had barely been planning our destinations at all. Even our most advanced reservation, we didn't make until March 11, just 4 days before we left our home-base. We couldn't secure anything until we knew when, if ever, we were hitting the road.

That reservation was for Blueway RV Park for April 3-12. Since we were in an area we had been many times before, laying low and enjoying time with family, we didn't plan on writing any blog post about our time there. Even when we got a flat tire two days before our departure, we had no plans to document the story. After all, it was pretty mundane. There was a construction site on the drive into the RV park, and we ran over a nail. It punctured a hole in our truck's rear driver's side tire. Thankfully, we were heading back to our campsite and were safely parked before we even noticed the leak.

The good thing about Fort Myers is, if you can tolerate the traffic, you have ample civilization right at your doorstep. Sure, it might take you 20 minutes to go a mile away, but once you get to where you're going, that place will exist! The nail was still embedded in our tire, helping to slow the leak. We thought if we could get to a tire repair shop quickly, we wouldn't need to jack up the truck and put on the spare. The last time our truck had a flat, getting the spare off was a feat in itself, even for our AAA guy. We sprang into action, calling every repair shop in the area, until one said we could bring the truck by. Anthony was able to hobble up the street, where the repair shop plugged the tire. This bought him time to drive 20 minutes further, to the Fort Myers Discount Tire. Anthony contacted them while at the first place, and they had our truck tire in-stock. They squeezed him in to get the tire changed same-day.

We already explained our haste in getting the tire repaired, but why the haste in getting it totally replaced? We were leaving Fort Myers and driving down to Key West that Sunday. It was Friday. Towing on a plugged tire is not a good idea, but towing on the route of I-75 → Florida Turnpike → miles upon miles of bridges would have been flat-out dangerous. Pun intended.

This was arguably our highest pressure travel day this year. We splurged on a very expensive campsite that would not refund us if we didn't make it. Given our financial situation the past several months, we needed to do everything in our power to not waste our money. Not only was our next campsite expensive, we had a very short check-in window, from 1-4pm. The resort keeps the gate closed and locked, and they leave the office early on Sundays. They specifically state that arrivals must be escorted and therefore cannot arrive outside the window. We had no room for error if we wanted to get across FL and down the Overseas Highway on time. This is why Anthony waited extra time at Discount Tire to get the new tire on before they closed that day. This is why we sacrificed time that should have been spent with family. We could rest assured that we had a brand new, ready-t0-roll tire. Plus, we had the whole day Saturday to make sure it was riding properly before our big drive.

Our recent drive days hadn't been smooth. First, we had an emergency travel day after escaping a campsite that was fast becoming a septic ditch. Then on our next drive day, we made it all the way to Blueway before realizing our GPS had the location of the RV park wrong, leaving us with only 2 options: 1, take a wrong turn into a parking lot, turn around, and go the long way around to reach the park from the other direction. Or 2, drive further up the street and attempt a U-turn of unknown size. We chose the former, delaying our arrival by a half-hour, just to go the few miles around. Told you Fort Myers had traffic.

We knew another difficult drive would compound our stress, but the cards were stacked against us. The pressure to get to our campsite on time. The madness that is traveling in Miami. Knowing that once we hit the Keys, there would be nowhere for us to stop because our RV is too big. Pets that really don't do well when they're stuck in the truck for too long. And our way-too-recent experience with the flat tire. We even made several comments like, "Watch, we think we're so lucky getting this flat tire now. We'll probably get another one on Sunday."

Another laughable moment for the universe as she manifests this instead of what we really need right now? Like money? And stability? We do hear she has one hell of a sense of humor. We had mapped out our breaks for this drive day, something we don't usually find necessary. We left Blueway early to allow us hours of leeway for our travels. We stopped 1 hour in to give the pets breakfast, because we left before their breakfast time. Our next and final stop would be as far south as feasible before getting on US Route 1, to get gas in a station that could actually fit us.

Things were going to plan as well as could be expected. We were slightly delayed leaving, but still had an extra 2.5 hours before we'd be facing crunch time to get to our resort by 4pm. This was the first drive after we promoted Macky to co-pilot, so we needed to factor in extra time to strap him into his new center console seat, but this was time well spent if it meant no more "mad meows" deafening us from the backseat.

Once on the FL Turnpike, we finalized our decision of which gas station to stop at, from a list of 3 Nicole had found the night before. We were almost running on empty, so we chose a Race-Trac station in South Miami. Stopping there would mean about 2.5 hours of nonstop driving to our resort, but the location was good. It was right off the Turnpike and across from a large Wawa in case we needed an alternative gas station option. It would also mean keeping a little safety buffer in our gas mileage. We've done the running-out-of-gas thing, and we do NOT want to need to do that on the side of the FL Turnpike.

The Turnpike is under construction, so the roads were uneven and bumpy. This meant there was no way to pinpoint a tire issue by feel, but we ended up pinpointing ours by ear. We passed a line of Jersey barriers, which reverberated the sound of our trailer. Typically, we hear the squeaking and creaking of horse trailer axles, but this time was different, like a harsh whistling sound. Naturally, Nicole quipped, "It could be another flat tire." 3 seconds later, the TPMS alarm went off, showing our first true alarm reading ever: 39psi and dropping steadily.

We found a small win in our situation: We were already planning to get off the next exit because that's where the Race-Trac was. We could stick with our plan! Less than a mile to the exit, and then a half-mile over to the gas station, where we pulled into a pump. Anthony filled up while Nicole went to check the tire situation.

Another small win: no blowout, no damage. Just a flat in the front passenger trailer tire.

Let's back the rig up for a second and talk about our launch day. We went nearly 400 miles to get out of MA and down to the Philly area. We took our new favorite route that adds on time and distance but avoids the behemoth that is NYC. For the record, it seemed much longer and more annoying than the first time we did it. But that's what we chose. We didn't make our first stop until we needed gas, and when Nicole did her walk-around, she thought something was off with one of the tires. She kept insisting that it looked a little misaligned. There was no sign of uneven wear, but it just didn't seem to be sitting right. Anthony couldn't see it and thought, maybe we're just parked slightly turned because we just pulled into a gas pump. For those unfamiliar with tandem axles, the wheels do tilt slightly on turns. We decided to watch the tire closely as we continued travels.

Our next stop was in a vacant office parking lot up the street from a Walmart that was too busy for us to get into. Gotta make do with what we have, so we took advantage of the Sunday drive, when no one was working in the office complex. We got out, and once again, Nicole noticed something off with that tire. This time, she took photos as comparison points.

It wasn't that Anthony didn't believe her; Nicole is known to her entire family as being scarily good at noticing when things aren't even. It makes leveling the trailer an art form! But this tire was aligned...wasn't it? It doesn't help that we're already hypervigilant due to our years of axle issues. What if we still had a tilted axle?

Once again, we decided to keep an eye on it, which we did...for the next 2000 miles. And every time Nicole did her walk-around..."That tire still doesn't look right." It didn't matter if we were turned left, right, or perfectly straight in-line.

And now here we were, at a Race-Trac in Miami, finally both in agreement that yeah, that tire ain't looking so good. After granting Nicole a little "I told you so" moment, it was time to assess our situation. First, we were safely pulled off the road, and we weren't on any bridges over the Keys yet. That's the biggest win we could have asked for. We had one of the most undramatic flats ever – no danger, no damage. And it just so happened that this Race-Trac is next to a Napa Auto Parts store, to which Anthony said, "I doubt we'll need anything there."

After getting gas, we decided to pull around to the outer pump on the other side, so we would be further out of the way. There was no place to pull over except next to that set of pumps. If all went well, we could change out the flat tire for our spare, which is a real travel-rated tire, and we'd just continue our journey down to the Keys.

But Anthony couldn't get our spare tire out of its holder. We have an underslung mount that expands and lowers for removal of the spare. Somewhere in the mess of our RV life and all the weather that comes with it, the parts that are supposed to expand, were rusted. Anthony tried lubricating them, but they wouldn't budge. We tried both pulling the holder for extra manpower. Nada.

"Why don't you go over to Napa Auto Parts and enlist the help of a big, burly man?" Nicole suggested.

Well, he wasn't big and burly, but Carlos was great at critical thinking. He asked for a hammer and swung away at the other end of the mount, jarring it free. Thanks, Carlos!

We may have had our spare tire, but we no longer had hours to spare before our check-in window closed. We couldn't have anymore setbacks.

But when Anthony took the flat tire off, more parts came with it.

We don't know much about wheels except what we've learned from RVing. Nicole immediately called our friends Kristen and Brian (Sleepy Adventure) to panic about wheel bearings, while Anthony took the calmer approach and examined the situation. It wasn't so bad. The dust cap had come off the hub assembly, and the wheel's center cap was also off and missing its cap plug, which is purely cosmetic. We could just mallet the dust cap back on, confirmed by Brian and the Napa Auto Parts folks. Then Anthony finally got to work putting the spare on.

By this point, we knew our chance of getting to our resort by 4pm was slim-to-none. We called them and left a message. When they called back, we explained our situation, assuming that they would tell us to wait until tomorrow to come. Kristen was already giving Nicole information on a park we could stay nearby. But to our pleasant surprise, the woman asked if we were all safe and then said she'd ask the manager what could be done to accommodate us. Another call later, we were given permission to arrive late, as long as it was before sundown, and we got the after-hours emergency number to call when we arrived. Well, we guess it was an emergency, just not at the resort!

Once we got the spare on, we stuck around a little longer to let the pets out of the truck before our long final stretch. They needed snacks, water, and bathroom time. Poor things have really been through the ringer with us these past few drive days.

Still parked at the outer pump, we decided it was only fair to go inside and make more purchases, aka all the food to make up for the fact that we didn't have lunch. We apologized to the cashiers for taking up 2 pumps for all that time, and we explained to them what had happened. They were super chill and just wanted to make sure that we were safe and got everything squared away. That's the thing about RV life. When desperate times hit, we're always warmed by how many nice, helpful people we encounter.

Now that we all had our much-needed break, we finally hit the road, traveling the scenic Overseas Highway (and Nicole diligently watching our lower-rated spare tire, just in case). All things considered, we made good time, arriving at 5:45pm. What awaited us was easily one of the most exquisite campsites we've ever booked, but we'll talk more about that in our next blog post.

We were so relieved to be back on schedule, ready to enjoy our ocean oasis. We were so close to not making it there! But we knew our tire troubles weren't over. We still didn't know what caused the leak. We inspected the tire once it was off, and it still looked like it had a lot of life left. Could we finally solve the mystery of the off-kilter tilt Nicole kept swearing she saw this past month? And the bigger question: once we were off the Keys, where would we go? We had no campgrounds booked, and now a possible trip to Discount Tire was in our future. We'd better rest up now so we could resume our tire troubleshooting later.