Lucky Ducks

About this time yesterday (Wednesday) we were motoring along at the 70 m.p.h. ( 113 km/h) posted speed limit on Interstate 81 northbound. It was a lovely day for a drive. We’d left our previous campsite at Big Stone Gap, Virginia around 9:00 a.m. headed for Pocahontas State Park near Richmond on the eastern side of the state. It should have been about a 6.5-hour drive.

I was enjoying the scenery, doing some shopping on Amazon, texting with friends, and thinking about how much we’d enjoyed our stay in Big Stone Gap. I was even pondering a blog post all about the Big Stone Gap stay, which I’d planned to write last night after we settled in at Pocahontas.

Unfortunately, about three hours into yesterday’s drive, we had a tire blow-out.

If you have never experienced a blow-out, you probably don’t realize how LOUD it can be. A little scary, too. Or a lot scary, depending on who you are. It can also be dangerous. Having any tire fail is bad, but having a front, steering tire blow is the “worst nightmare” scenario.

For us, it was the right-front tire that blew. It’s a steering tire, which is pretty much located directly under the passenger seat where I was sitting. First, there was a very loud bang, followed instantly by the coach jerking to the right. That movement was accompanied by an enormous amount of shaking/vibration and loud thumping sounds as stuff started flying forward inside the coach (we decelerated rapidly) and the shredded tire wreaked havoc on the body of the rig.

Mike heroically managed to get the coach safely over to the shoulder and stopped.

It was terrifying when it happened. It happened REALLY fast, too. The scariest part was that, since we were approaching a bridge/exit, there was a guard rail angling toward the shoulder and the “escape” space we had was dwindling extremely quickly.

If you look closely at those screen captures, you can see the guard rail angling closer and closer to the road.

 

Below, I have shared text from a forum post Mike wrote describing the experience…

Cruising along I-81N today in the right lane, at the speed limit (70) when I had a blowout on the right steer tire.

Yes, I’ve read posts here [on the forum] …”get rid of the Good Years! They are an accident waiting to happen.” I wish I had listened to that sage advice.

I was able to keep it under control and coast to the very narrow shoulder, but when the tire let loose, it took some of the bodywork with it (the fiberglass fender is shot). When the nose dropped down, the steps grabbed the ground and were bent back so much that they won’t close, and the metal door frame was bent outward when the fender was blown out. There was so much vibration during the blow-out and coming to a stop that three of the headlights were knocked loose (one of them disappeared completely), two of the marker light covers also disappeared, and both of the front “C” accent lights popped partially out. The “wall” between the batteries and the wheel well was obliterated. I’ve not crawled under the coach to see if there was any additional damage.

The good news: The toad (2021 Mini) seems to have escaped unharmed, although the bicycles mounted to the rear of it were shaken loose.

We’re alive – we survived a terrifying incident on a major interstate highway.

Complete Tire in Wytheville, Virginia was stellar in getting on the scene and mounting a temporary tire to get us off the highway and to a nearby campground. They’ve ordered two new Michelin RV tires that will (hopefully) be in tomorrow so that we can continue on our way.

We really were very lucky. Angels were watching over us for sure. Belle was sleeping in her bed between our seats and Mike and I were both belted in. The toaster oven that usually rides on the kitchen counter ended up in front of Belle, resting on the floor against the dashboard. We don’t know how that thing missed hitting Belle, but we do know the toaster oven will be well-secured on future trips.

Staying in a disabled vehicle on the shoulder of a busy interstate highway full of big trucks moving at high speed is one of the worst things you can do, so we all (me, Mike, and Belle) left the coach and waited on the grassy area adjacent to the shoulder, about 50 feet (15 m) away from the coach. (Belle was happy. The shoulder had quite a few raspberry and blackberry bushes full of fruit and there was bear poop for her to sniff and [almost!] roll on.)

Mike called Coach-Net and waited on hold, and waited, then waited some more. Meanwhile, I called the State Police, who dispatched a highway safety vehicle and a state trooper, both who arrived pretty quickly and sat behind us, lights flashing, while we waited to talk to Coach-Net. The trooper called a local tire repair company — Complete Truck Service, Inc. — to come and help us.

I was on the phone with Complete Truck Service when Coach-Net finally got on the phone with Mike (“only” 41 minutes of hold time later!). The rep was actually happy to hear that we were working on the problem ourselves and agreed to pick up the tab for the service call and costs associated with travel for the rescue vehicle. We will need to pay for the new tire. As for the rest of the damage, we are hoping insurance covers that. There is an insurance deductible, of course.

 

The images that follow, show some of the damage.

 

 

 

 

 

Fortunately, there was an RV park right around the corner from Complete Truck Service. Oddly, it just happens to be the same RV park where we camped for the first time when bringing the new-to-us coach back from Kentucky.

Our new tires are supposedly being delivered later today. Hopefully, they will be installed first-thing tomorrow (Friday) so we can continue on to Pocahontas State Park.

The good news is that we missed Tropical Storm Elsa, which, by the looks of the weather radar, appears to be impacting Pocahontas State Park as I type this. That means we are missing out on torrential rain, flash flooding, and potentially damaging winds, which would have been a huge concern if we were parked at a campsite surrounded by trees.

All in all, things could have been much, MUCH worse.

This is more of that stuff we say is “all part of the adventure.” Both of us could, however, use a little less excitement.