IT'S ONLY PHLAT ON THE BOTTOM

Jackie said,"Do you hear that hissing?"  "Nope," I replied, turned down the radio and listened with interest. She thought it was some animal, I heard nothing.  I opened the door to the rig and low and behold, a hissing was clearly present.  I stepped out into the dark and felt a breeze on my knees, turned the flashlight toward the rig, and  followed the stream of air toward the tire...Oh my, a hole in the outside, rear dulie tire.  I must have bruised it on a rock somewhere, and between the sun and road miles it had degraded enough to blow a small hole in the sidewall.  

Road Service to the rescue.  Thank God for Ford's little road service gift at time of the rig's purchase.  The fellow that responded from 70 miles away, Bennie, was a one man tire changing factory.  He said he learned the business in Tijuana as a kid without machines and this is what he still does, 40 years later but now he has his own business, Bennie's Road Service, Havasu City, AZ.

A mile and a quarter into the desert is not a good place to have a flat, especially when one is without the proper equipment to lift the axle of a RV motor home, ie. hydraulic jack.and tire irons.

Ended up the spare rim/tire was for the front and wouldn't fit the rear but never fear, Benny was a one-man tire repair.  His year's of training sure paid off handsomely for us this day.  He tossed those tires and rims around like a person that knew exactly what they were doing...and he did.

 What a treat to watch a person in complete command of his skills.  This guy never missed a lick or made a wrong turn and flipped those big pry bars around like a majorette twirls batons.  $200 paid by Ford.

We drove on to Bullhead City, AZ for new tires all the way around. The old tires had almost 40K on them and it was time for new.

Save for one person in the Oil and Tire Department, Walmart drops the ball in Bullhead City.  We waited at least 40 minutes before anyone even approached us as to our needs and that was with no one in front of us and no one in the vacant bays.  The repair boys just wandered around looking like they had been puffing on the sweet-leaf pipe.  The young girl inside that was to take our order was clueless. 

Looking back, I believe we arrived there close to a shift change, from morning to afternoon shift, and they, the morning shift, didn't want to get involved with a new project.

I had a friendly chat with the store manager, naturally.

All is well, we have 6 new tires and a spare full of air.