Lucy's Great Excursion

**moosetags** · 05-13-2007, 07:34 AM

Day 1 (Saturday, May 12, 2007)

We are finally off in Lucy on our great adventure to Wyoming and Montana. We not sure exactly how long we will be gone or exactly where we will go. We got a late start (11:00 AM) and covered a little over 300 miles. We found a nice campground right on I-20 in Clinton, Mississippi. It is Springdale RV Park. It is inside an upscale mobile home park. It is nice and secure with complete hook- ups for $18. It is two blocks off I-20 at Exit #36 in Mississippi.

Here's a snapshot of Lucy and Olivia on Day 1 taking a lunch break in the Publix parking lot in Navarre, Florida.

streamer23 · 05-13-2007, 07:36 AM

It's a beautiful part of the country.Have an enjoyable and safe trip.

lewster · 05-13-2007, 08:18 AM

M-Tags,

Did you get effected by any of the fires on your way out of FL. I heard that parts of i-75 and I-10 were closed and that the traffic was gridlocked in the areas

.

Have a great time on your trip! If you happen to get to Jackson Hole, WY, be sure to stop at the New York City Sub Shop for lunch. Owned by a friend of mine with a HUGE handlebar moustache, IMHO they make the best subs on the planet.....hot off the grill!

If you do make it, say hi to Bruce (the owner) for me

.

dieterdog · 05-13-2007, 08:34 AM

Have a great trip,, holler if you come close to Hamilton,,, happy trails,, donna

safari57 · 05-13-2007, 10:00 AM

And so the adventure begins - may you have as many smiles as miles on your trip. This is a great time of the year to be out on a road trip with your Airstream.

Take care,
Barry

Pecos Pete · 05-13-2007, 12:17 PM

Have a great trip! We have been on the road since October 13, and have logged just over 15,000 miles. Getting ready to store the AS for the summer and enjoy summer in the mountains of New Mexico.

GStephens · 05-13-2007, 12:29 PM

I GUESS THAT GIVES YOU TWO FRIENDS IN HAMILTON. IT IS JUST THAT I LIVE IN HAMILTON, TEXAS.
GStephens

dieterdog · 05-13-2007, 03:20 PM

G.,, where is Hamilton Texas???? lived in that great state for about 25 years,, Alpine and Boerne,,, may have to visit there sometime,, my daughters would laugh,,, donna

**moosetags** · 05-13-2007, 10:22 PM

DAY 2

We got a fairly early start from Clinton, Mississippi, and headed west on I-20. We were headed to the Dallas area to spend a couple of days and look around. All went pretty smoothly until about 5:00 PM. We were westbound at about 65 mph. A car passed us in the left lane waving frantically at us that something was amiss with Lucy. Fortunately, we were approaching Exit #490 near Forney, Taxas (about 30 miles east of Dallas). We pulled off on the exit ramp and brought Lucy to a stop. SuEllyn jumped out first and found to her horror that Lucy's right front tire had blown out and was shreaded. I guess we were lucky to get stopped quickly as the tire was still smoking. The failed tire did put a small rip in the Lucy's aluminum at the wheel well. We were very luck that it did not do more damage.

After assessing the situation, we decided to handle it ourselves instead of calling AAA. We figured we could do it faster and better. We put our rear right tire up on some of those lego-type leveling blocks. I put the torque wrench on the lugs, but the wheel spun. I tried putiing the tire back on the ground, but there wasn't enough left of the failed tire to hold it still while I removed the lug nuts. SuEllyn came up with the idea of manually engaging the trailer brakes. SuEllyn held the lever, and I was able to loosten the lug nuts. The spare came down easily and we mounted it ans were once again on our way. As soon as we were done, it started raining very hard. We had lucked out again.

I had checked the tire pressure this morning, and all was OK. I had even visually checked the tires about 50 miles prior to the failure. Lucy has about 13,000 miles on her, and all of her tires appeared to be in very good condition. Of course I may have had a puncture. There isn't enough left of the failed tire to really tell.

We made it to the Dallas Metro KOA at about 7:00 PM. We were glad to just settle in Lucy. We plan to head to Goodyear hear in Dallas in the morning and get Lucy a replacement tire.

Here are a few photos of the tire incident. Imput as to possible causes would be appreciated. Hopefully tomorrow will be be a better day for Lucy.

**moosetags** · 05-13-2007, 10:41 PM

We really appreciate the invitations form from both Donna and Gayland to visit Hamilton, Texas. We don't think that we will be able to make it down that way as tomorrow will be devoted to getting Lucy a new tire. When we leave here, we are on our way to visit old friends who have a ranch up near Matador in Motley County. They are expecting us on Tuesday afternoon. We will be driving up there at a slower pace as Lucy is now a little gun shy.

As to lewster's question about the fires in Florida. We heard that sections of both I-10 and I-75 were colsed yesterday. We live out in Central Time near Pensacola and haven't been exposed to any of the current Florida fires.

Minnie's Mate · 05-13-2007, 11:01 PM

Sounds like you have a great trip ahead of you. Hopefully this incident with the blown tire is the glitch of the trip. Safe travels and happy times with great memories to you and your wife!

jordandvm · 05-14-2007, 03:58 AM

I may be mistaken.....but that pic sure looks like your front end is high relative to your TV.......did you have your dealer level your rig before you started?

Quote:

Originally Posted by moosetags

Day 1 (Saturday, May 12, 2007)

We are finally off in Lucy on our great adventure to Wyoming and Montana. We not sure exactly how long we will be gone or exactly where we will go. We got a late start (11:00 AM) and covered a little over 300 miles. We found a nice campground right on I-20 in Clinton, Mississippi. It is Springdale RV Park. It is inside an upscale mobile home park. It is nice and secure with complete hook- ups for $18. It is two blocks off I-20 at Exit #36 in Mississippi.

Here's a snapshot of Lucy and Olivia on Day 1 taking a lunch break in the Publix parking lot in Navarre, Florida.

GStephens · 05-14-2007, 05:46 AM

dieterdog, Donna, Hamilton, Texas is the northern most county that is normally included as being part of the Texas Hill Country. We are 115 miles north of Austin and 115 miles south of Ft. Worth along Hwy 281. Waco is 70 miles to our east while Abilene is 120 miles west of us.

Moosetags, sorry to hear of your tire failure, but glad to know there was no more damage than you experienced. Still, it might not be a bad idea for you to stop by Weatherford while you are in the Dallas/Ft Worth area and have David Tidmore of Roger Williams Airstream have a look at the damage so that you could file a claim with your insurance company for the damage you experienced. You might be surprised at the costs involved in what appears to be minor damage when it involves an Airstream or anything else for that matter.
GStephens

SilverCabin · 05-14-2007, 12:00 PM

I don’t want to hijack moosetags thread here, just a reply to the FL fires question from lewster.

lewster: We were returning to FL on I-95 from Savannah, GA yesterday, when they closed the highway in front of us just north of Jacksonville. Of course, we had already passed the last escape exit. We sat on I-95 southbound, north of Jacksonville, for an hour before we could inch our way to the front of the three-mile long three-lane jam, and cross over thru the median barricade back to the northbound side. At the turnaround you could see thick black smoke obscuring the highway, the flashing lights of the fire trucks, and helicopters overhead dumping water. We then had to drive four miles back to the exit, then west about 10 miles to get to US-1 before we could turn south again.

moosetags: Sorry about the bad luck with the tire. Looking forward to reading more about your trip. Be safe.

Randy