Wow! what a day!
It started in the morning, Katie and I were packing up getting ready to leave. I wanted to get the golf cart ready to be put away. I wanted to make sure the water level in the batteries was correct, as I planned to leave the charger plugged in while we're gone. The charger according to the manual comes on every 15 days and checks the charge level. It will charge if the batteries need it. Batteries will lose some charge in the heat and not being used. I pulled off one of the caps, and acid splashed into one of my eyes, now I understand why safety glasses are in order. Katie and I immediately ran inside and Katie was quick and already had the water running. I just kept rinsing my eye with water.
After the rinse, it just felt like there was dirt in my eye, and it was red and leaking a bit. But there was no real pain and my vision was not effected. Lucky! The splash occurred from a distance, I was not bending right over the battery, just enough for an arms length. After that we used a rag to cover the caps as I removed them and there was no danger of acid splashing. Should have thought of that in the first place. But isn't that how accidents happen?
So after packing up, off we went. happily driving down the highway, thankful that my eye appeared to be fine. The roads are usually great in the US and Texas, but this was a particularly bad stretch, it was very rough! Then I heard and felt it, a blowout, and I knew right away what it was, and that it was on the front right. I managed to control the car and get it over to the shoulder. Lucky there was not a lot of traffic when it happened and that we were in the lane closest to the shoulder instead of passing another car in the outside lane.
Here is what Katie posted on her facebook page later...
Wow, that was interesting. Just arrived but not after a 75 mile an hour tire blow out. I mean, not just a flat, the tire was shredded to bits. In the middle of nowhere. Hmmmm 31 degrees, traffic speeding by, and now we have to dig out the jack or call roadside assistance. Called roadside and a 90 minute wait. Ok waiting, state trooper pulls up and offers assistance. Not much he could do except convinces us to change it ourselves or call a tow truck. We decided to change it ourselves. Off he goes but not before giving us a number to call if we need help. He said he would be in the area for a while. We start emptying the car and 2 state troopers pull up, get out of their car and assess the situation. They had a better jack so they pulled their jack out of the patrol car and in no time flat the tire was changed. They did most of the work including changing the tire. Man, they were terrific. They even helped us load the car. Took down their names and who they report to, and we are going to give them huge kudos when we get back home. One of them said, they would shake our hands but his hands were dirty. We didn't care, it was our car tire dirt. We were so great full for the help. In the meantime roadside assistance calls and they can't find us. Turns out they were given the wrong location. They were still an hour a way. We told them to forget about it. Someone was looking out for us in every way. Lucky us....
The reason we called roadside assistance from Toyota was because the back of the car was totally loaded with luggage, the sissor jacks that come with these cars are terrible. I once had to change a tire for Katie when it was about 31 below with a scissor jack and I swore I would never use it again. After that I went and bought a small hydraulic jack, but there is not that much movement of the rod from lowest to highest. I put a small length of 2x4 in the car to compensate.
Never had to use it, but the possibility was now upon us. The jack and 2x4 were in the storage area at the bottom of the car, underneath all the luggage. I wasn't sure the travel on the jack at the side of the road would be enough...hence the call to roadside assistance.
After the first trooper arrived, as a result of discussing options and him telling us the two vehicle would still be quite a while and was probably coming from Corpus Christie, which is a long way away, we decided to try to change it ourselves. We took all the luggage out, got to the jack and 2x4 and just as I was about to start jacking the car up, a second set of troopers pulled up, a man and a woman. He said he had a small floor jack in their car if I wanted to use it. I said sure. then he got busy with the jack, and basically did all the work. He got the shredded tire off, and he and I maneuvered the new tire into position, but the car was not high enough. Trouble is, the jack is at maximum height. Ah...the good old 2X4...we had to put the old tire back on....lower the jack so we could put the 2/4 on top of it...then jack it up again, remove the old tire and rim, and install the new tire and rim. We just made it for height of the jack! We both knew without the 2 by 4 it was a lost cause.
As Katie said, after basically doing most of the work, and getting dirty hands both of us, he was reluctant to shake hands, but we all shook hands anyway and we took down the contact info for their supervisor and their names so we can write a letter about how great they were, and how grateful we were.
As it turned out we basically only lost an hour, thanks to the State Troopers, and the rest of the trip to just outside of San Antonio was uneventful, except for the GPS giving us a hard time, when we arrived at the town of Lytle to get to our hotel. We solved that by asking for directions and it was only about a 1/2 mile away. We got a free night at the Best Western, as we always stay there, and we had stayed two nights on the way to Texas. As a result we got a voucher for the 3rd night free, and that is what we used.
and so ended, another great day in the valley, regardless of a few problems
more later...
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