Oklahoma City Here I Come!

December 28, 2017

What a tough day!  I didn’t sleep well last night being my first day on the road and that Yuma kept hogging my side of the bed.  For forty pounds, he is hard to push over.

It got down to about 34 degrees last night and since I had no heat going, it was downright cold this morning when I got up about 7:30.  We were toasty in our sleeping bags all night. 

Turned Mr. Heater on to take the chill out of the air and took Yuma for a walk.  Then sat down to read the online news and my blogs.  Had a bowl of ceral and fed Yuma and went out to check the tire pressure before heading out.

That’s when things went south.  The first rear tire I checked had 20 lbs.  That’s a long way from the expected pressure of 80 lbs.  Basically, it was flat and was being held up by the other dual tire.  Checked the other three and they were all fine.

Had to sit down and worry about things for awhile, trying to figure out what to do.  First, I walked over the the Walmart to see if they had an Auto Service Department and sure enough they did.  Asked the manager if I could bring the MH  around for them to check and they said it would be fine.

On the way back to the MH, I had time to think.  I wondered if it could be a loose tire stem.  You see, yesterday, it was so cold when I checked the tires before leaving home, I dropped the stem cap and couldn’t find it.  I said to heck with it and I would check in the evening to see if I had one in the MH. 

Well, this morning, the tire with the missing stem cap was the one that was flat.  I checked the stem with my handy dandy stem tightner and sure enough it was loose.  Loose stem and no stem cap causes problems.  Checked, and sure enough, I have extra stem caps in the MH.  Should have looked yesterday.  That’s what I get for putting things off.

Took the MH over to Walmart and had them fill the tire with air, thanked them and I was on my way.  By now it was 10 o’clock so I was an hour late getting on the road.

Rest area on I-44.

Hooked onto I-44 toll road heading towards Tulsa, Oklahoma with plans to get off near Tulsa and go down state highway 69 all the way to Denison, Texas, North of Dallas to spend the night.  Kevin and Ruth of Travel with Kevin and Ruth! are always saying to get off the interstate and see the country.  I did this for about 40 miles of the 200 miles I was going to go and I couldn’t stand it.  The road was bumpy as heck and there was a small town every ten miles with two stop lights and they were always red.

I said the heck with it and jumped on toll road 412 heading west to Tulsa and got back on I-44 to Oklahoma City.  Hit OKC at the 5 o’clock rush hour and it was horrendous.  Thank goodness, my MH is big and long with the Jeep attached.  When I changed lanes, I could push folks out of the way.  Did that a couple of times.

Now Yuma and I are happily staying at a friendly Walmart southwest of OKC.  I am definitely ready to rest and hopefully on track to hit Lubbock, Texas tomorrow night.  We shall see.

See you later.