On Thursday, John worked to do some repairs on the trailer. The tire blowout had ripped two pieces of fender skirt off and damaged the weather coating underneath. The front fender skirt piece was never found; it might have disintegrated. The middle piece was found, but it was damaged. The rear piece was undamaged. The weather coating appears to be something like a tarp that covers the exposed underside. This was shredded where the tire pieces hit it.

John found one of the fender skirt pieces, but the other was no where to be found. It might have disintegrated in the blast. He put the damaged fender skirt piece on and used waterproof repair tape to patch the hole. Only time will tell if that waterproof tape holds long term. If not, we will try something like Flex Seal rubber spray.

We needed to drop the RV off at 8 am at the Blue Compass RV in Des Moines. Going the fast route at normal speeds, it is about a 30 minute drive. Going the safe for RV route at safe with no spare tire speeds, we had no idea. We ended up deciding to get up at 5:30 am. We know some people do this normally, but we have no idea why.

It turns out to be good that we got up at 5:30 am instead of 6:00 am because it took 1.75 hours to get everything packed, situated, and hooked up. We moved the most valuable things, like medicines, computers, cameras, and files into our cars. We hooked the truck up with the cats in the truck, like normal. Well sort of normal. Normally, they do not have a mountain of backpacks and boxes to sit on while hooking up. After hooking the truck up, we put the cats int the bug tent with Kate.

John drove the RV to Blue Compass at 50 to 55 mph, and he pissed off anyone in Des Moines that we failed to piss off after the blowout on Tuesday. Upon arrival, Blue Compass had no record of our Friday tire replacement.

Wut?

After a lot of waiting and talking to several people, we found out that it had been left as an estimate versus an appointment. On Friday, the man who helped us on Tuesday and Wednesday was in the hospital with his father getting surgery. He had not been sure we were planning to actually go through with the tire replacement on Friday. This was odd to us because we left the damaged tire with them, and he told us the replacement tires were reserved for us. We think that he was not totally with it due to his family emergency. We are not mad about it; his family should come first.

After an hour, it was determined that they could do the tires today, but the lady that John was supposed to speak with to get the trailer dropped off had just left. John pulled the truck forward to unhook the trailer, and he could not get the compartment door open. Turns out he had stripped the teeth off his key, and they were probably in the lock. He eventually got it out, but he went ahead and just bought a replacement lock and installed it.

John refueled, picked up breakfast, and drove back to the campground to sit with Kate and the cats. Fortunately for us, it only made it to 89 degrees on Friday. That last degree might have been too much. (That was sarcasm, in case you were wondering.) We played games on our phones and tablets while we roasted in the heat. The cats explored … well, Cleo explored. Cleo found out that the pillow moves so you can’t sit on it.

They both watched birds.

Cleo checked to see if the RV was back.

MacKie slept a lot.

We just roasted.

We were worried about the cats, but they did fine. Kate rubbed water into Cleo’s fur to cool her off, which she did not much appreciate.

Around 1:30 pm, we started calling for an update. We were told that we would be called later with an estimate for the brake work. Finally, around 3:30 pm, John started driving back to Blue Compass RV. While on the road, we finally got the estimate and a call back. We got the tires replaced, but they could not get the brakes done. They were too short staffed today. We did not want to sleep outside, so we will get the brakes done in Oklahoma or do it ourselves.

The quote for the brakes was a little suspect. They wanted to replace the entire brake mechanism and drum instead of putting in new brake pads. This might be their normal process, but it sounds like it would cost about $2,400. Of that, $1,400 would have been parts. It would take A LOT of extra labor replacing the pads to make up for that parts cost.

Kate was getting hot, so she loaded the cats in the car. It turns out that she was low on gas, so she had to fill up. The cats seemed to like her car. They invaded the hatchback and peeked over the rear seats.

We ended up with Hankook Vantra TH31 tires. They were one of the tires from the previous post here. The good news is:

• Load Rating G: 14-ply vs 10-ply rated, so 40% stronger sidewall
• Load index 129/125: rated for 3,640 lbs each with tandem axles, so 20% more load.
• Speed Rating M: rated for 81 mph. A little lower than the old tires, but more than fast enough.
• 12/32″ Tread: 50% more tread, so wearing out before five years is unlikely.
• All steel body: stronger tire overall
• Supports 90 PSI: tire can be run a little under-inflated for lower weight RVs

The bad side news is

• they might bounce a little more than the old ones due to being 90 PSI
• they are made in Korea. We were hoping for made in the USA, but we have more confidence in Korean tires than Official Chinese May-Pop ties.