Big Boom

While we were not able to be home for birthdays, we were kept extremely busy this weekend.  Bob and I attended an Escapees Boot Camp, which is a three day workshop for rookie RVers.  We had sessions on RV systems and maintenance, personal safety, safe driving, fire safety, towing, choosing an RV, weight management (of the rig, not our bodies,) and tire management.  We got to calibrate our tire sensor, and I was able to put out a fire and actually use a fire extinguisher.  We have an appointment to have our rig weighed on a huge scale that also weighs each tire and will show us if we need to redistribute our "stuff."  There was so much to learn, and learn we did! We also met some of the nicest people we have ever met. It was a really great experience.

Sunday's session ended at lunchtime, so Bob and I went back to our campsite when it was over.  Bob wanted to check our tires, armed with his new knowledge and a newly calibrated tire pressure sensor.  He was very concerned after checking because one of the inner back tires read zero tire pressure, not a good thing.  He added some air, waited an hour to see if it lost any pressure (it hadn't lost any,) then added some more.  I was inside the rig when all of a sudden I heard a very loud explosion that shook the coach, like the sound of a propane tank exploding. I ran outside and around in time to see Bob stagger away from the side of the motorhome.  People from neighboring campsites ran over to see what had happened and to offer aid if needed, some with fire extinguishers in hand, the noise was that loud.  Well, the inner back tire had blown out, and actually blew out the side of the motorhome around the tires as well.  Bob only had a couple of small cuts on his arm, and was incredibly fortunate that it was the inner tire and not the outer one that had blown out because he could have been killed.  God was watching over him, that's for sure!  The living area inside was not affected.  But he was pretty shaken up and so was I. We cannot see what kind of damage there may be under the rig yet--that is to be determined.

I'll tell you, it was really great to see people so ready to help total strangers.  It ended up being a real ice breaker, with folks stopping in all afternoon to offer advice and hugs.  This morning we contacted our roadside assistance company and will see what they will do for us.  We will need at least two new tires and some repair on the side of the coach, so hopefully this won't mess up our trip to the Temple, TX area this week.  We were supposed to leave Wednesday, but all is up in the air now.