Road Trippin'

When last we were together I guess I kinda led you to believe we overnighted in Aurora, Nebraska. The woman who feeds, clothes, and shelters me informed me that this was not so. After she refreshed my memory it comes to mind that we didn't stay there, owing to the fact that the truck stop had nothing but back in spaces. For those of you not in the know, when we are on the road pulling the shitbox pickup truck, we can't back up. Something about bending the towbar and destroying the pickups front end...I don't know, but anyway the fact of the matter is that we drove another 20 or so miles to the little town of York, Nebraska.

York is a virtual Metropolis, compared to Aurora. You can see from the picture that they are no mere "one horse town". Nope, they have two of them. *snicker*. Seriously though, we knew York had a larger truck stop and we hoped some of the spots would be pull-throughs...and vacant. Upon our arrival, we were pleased to see that the stop had an Iron Skillet Restaurant. What we weren't pleased to see is that the Truckers area was one of those full service types and all "head in". Again, for the "uninitiated", these truck stops have these, which are hookups for the trucker to have A/C, TV, Internet, etc.

So, we opted for a gravel lot across the street which had one other truck parked in it. "Look at it this way" I said "It'll be quieter." We went across the way and pulled in where we were pretty well level and things were looking pretty good, from a boondockers point of view. The lot backed up to a farmers field, so it was fairly private. There was only one other truck in here, so it was fairly quiet. And we hadn't eaten since the early lunch at L&C State park, so I was fairly hungry.

Rather than taking time and trouble to fix a dinner (since we were feeling lazy weak from hunger), we opted to dine at the restaurant...the one across the street. I say "across the street", but what I really mean was this.



After running this scenario through my head, I opted to drive over. We had a really huge meal. OK, maybe not that huge, but it was a lot. (Can anybody even tell what the Hell that is?) When we finally were able to get my bloated belly out the door left, I noticed the pickup seemed to be listing to port a bit. As we drew closer I had "that sinking feeling". Yep, seems that the air that was on the inside of the tire, was now on the outside of the tire. Just what you want to do after a big meal, fix a flat. And speaking of which, I had none.

So I was down to old school. We fired up the generator, plugged in a light and started feeling for the intruder. I didn't get very far before I found it; a small piece of glass. I guess we picked it up in the gravel lot "across the street". Looking at it, I didn't think it was big enough to puncture a tire...til I looked at the "tread" on the tire. You know how you kinda shove some things to the back of yer mind sometimes? I guess I kinda pushed this maybe a bit further...say to Venus! Yeah, we've had this truck going on six years now and had never put rear tires on it.

On this thin-skinned tire, that piece of glass was pretty much like Darth's light saber on Luke's hand. No, not that Luke.... this one. Well, you know. And speaking of light sabers...if we could get such a thing, you see guys doing this or this with them...you know you would. And do you think if Darth had Stormtroopers that looked like this, maybe he would have been to busy to cause trouble?

But I digress.

After pulling that "ginormous" hunk of glass out of the tire, I fell back on the only technology I had...I'm talking about that great Armenian innovation, the tire plug. If any of you have ever tried to use this "invention", and I use that term loosely, it's like trying to drive a railroad spike up a cats ass with yer bare fist. (And you are one sick puppy if you clicked that link.)I finally got the tire plugged and aired up. We opted to spend the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot so we could get a tire put on in the morning. The next morning I head for the auto center only to find that not only do they not have a tire of the size I need, the only other tire shop in town doesn't either. Now these aren't some bastard size tire. It should have been easy to get...if you're in a town of more than 4000 people.

Epic story shorter, I end up having to buy two new tires for the rear and we are finally able to get back on the road. "But Mark,that wasn't free!!" I hear you say. NO SHIT! That, my friends was a tune I call the $135 boogie. A sour little number that you can't dance to. Fortunately, all we had planned for the rest of the day was to leave the state and make our way to Hutchinson, Kansas. And we did.

We end up spending the night at the mall in Hutchinson. I was looking forward to day five of our trip, and I'll tell you why...when we meet again.

Arrivederci