The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Saturday, November 18, 2017

Tire fixed, and a long driving day....

Up early at the Walmart in Watertown, New York. No idea what the temperature had gone down to that night, but it was only 39F (3C) inside the motorhome when we woke up. We never leave the heat on at night. Nice and cozy in bed still, but boy you sure didn't want to get out!

Looked outside and saw this...

You know you're in Amish country when...

Amish horse and buggy at Walmart.

First order of business? Gotta do something with that leaky tire. I had a closer look at it and couldn't find any sign of damage. So I had a thought... I had checked all the tires and pressures before we left for Barbados. Sherman's tires have never leaked, even when sitting. They lost about two pounds each the whole year he sat there. But I remembered that one of the valve extensions didn't look quite right, but didn't think it was a problem. Anyhow, when we got the work done last month, the guy obviously had the rear wheels off, and when he put the wheel cover back on it caused pressure on one of the extensions, and it leaked.

I simply filled the tire, removed the extension, and the leak was fixed! So I'll have to pick one up along the way. 

The culprit!

So, with that fixed we hit the road. It was about 10:00am, and we had a long drive ahead of us.

 Boring Interstate 81 south.

The first part was just on the I-81 south. We hate driving on the interstate highways, but sometimes it just makes sense. So I put the cruise on at around 57 mph (95 km/h), stay in the right lane, and let everybody else rush on by. 

We stayed on the I-81 through Syracuse although we did stop for gas. Gotta love gasbuddy for finding us the cheapest fuel. Filled up for $2.45 a gallon ($0.83 a litre CAD)!

Yes, we're headed for Mexico. But not Mexico, NY!

Scenery along the way.

Cortland, NY.

After Cortland, we took the 34 south, and then into Pennsylvania where we took the 220 south. Overall good roads, and very scenic. It never rained, and we had sunshine most of the way! A big improvement from the day before!

Pennsylvania scenery.

 Better than the Interstate any day!
More scenery.

I knew that we were cutting our arrival time close. With the sun setting at around 4:45pm, we still had about an hours drive to do. But we really wanted to get to Connie and Barry's place, so we continued on. We never drive after dark. You don't get to see the scenery that way! Anyhow, we made it with no problem.

Nice to see them again. We had stayed with Connie and Barry five years ago when we took the little blue car through here heading for Mexico. But it was only a one night visit and we enjoyed their company and promised to return some day. So here we are, five years later!

They took us out for dinner to the Wilderness Lodge up in the mountains near here. Great to get caught up on everything. Thanks for dinner!

277 miles (443 kms), a long driving day for us!

But that's it... there won't be any more long driving days. From here on in, we have no schedule to keep except for being in Mission, Texas for January 5th!

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Queen size comforter.... various colors available... Black Friday leadup deal!


And in Canada....


(Includes Mexico maps!)






16 comments:

  1. Nice that you got the tire fixed. We had problems with those extensions as well, so got rid of them and had the tire place install metal valve stems with the proper tire gauge and no extensions needed.
    Travel safe and enjoy.

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    Replies
    1. Kevin said that that wouldn't work well for us, maybe the design is a bit different between yours and ours. Also this is the first time in ten years that the valve extension has caused us a problem so he is just going to buy and new one down the road.

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  2. Good you have your tire issue settled for now. Long drive but good scenery and well worth the final destination of good friends. A nice dinner is always appreciated. From now on no real agenda so enjoy your adventure. Looking forward to the next post from wherever. Drive safe!

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    1. Yes, we are happy that the tire problem ended up being a simple one and that we could get under way again without any delays. The scenery was really nice especially once the sun came out.

      Delete
  3. With the temperature inside of 39F, you would not have a problem with the water freezing in the tank and pipes. Of course, Ruth cooking a meal on the stove and use of the Mr. Buddy heater before going to bed probably kept the water pipes from freezing, not enough consecutive hours without heat for them to freeze. However, if you were in Alaska, it might be a different set of circumstances.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope, no problem with them freezing at that temperature and if we had thought that there might have been a problem we probably would have gotten up at some point in the night to put the Mr. Buddy Heater on but we really don't like to have it on when we are sleeping. We aren't planning to be in Alaska with temperatures any colder than that!

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  4. Yepper, Sherman is in our driveway and looking good! We are super happy to have you back again. What a fun couple! We never run out of things to talk about, do we? We’re glad you liked the Wilderness Lodge!!!!!!!!

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    1. Thanks so much for everything Connie and Barry, we are really enjoying your company! :-)

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  5. Small world....we plan on being in Mission, TX soon after the New Year! Maybe we'll have time to meet for happy hour! We will be staying in Mission for about a month before heading to Big Bend NP.

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    1. That would be great if we could meet up at some point. Maybe even go on a hike together! :-) We will get in contact as we get closer to the area.

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  6. An excellent day and the perfect end to that day. Safe travels.

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    1. It was an excellent day, just wish that we didn't have to do that last hour in the dark. Seeing friends and having dinner with them was an excellent way to end the day. :-)

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  7. Glad it was an easy fix for the tire. We've had those extensions before and have had nothing but problems with them.
    Beautiful scenery. Glad you had a Safe trip and having fun with friends.

    It's about time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Funny, this is our first problem with them in 10 years. Hopefully when we get the replacement it will not give us problems either, I guess time will tell.

      The scenery is beautiful here, just wish that the sun could shine a little but at least it isn't raining.

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  8. Problem solved! A great start after all. Safe travels...

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