timothy's Journal: Big Trip 2010: No. 2

20100620 trip update

Mile 374 - Idaho, with a flat tire.

Flat tire! In Idaho! On Sunday! If anyone would like to bring me some orange juice or just water, that would be great. Find me at the willow Creek pull-off, approx. mile marker 71 on Eastbound I-90.

Cause: Though I didn't see whatever it was, I heard the THUMP as (I suspect) I hit a piece of construction debris; I saw a lot of cones that had been hit as I was driving in the narrowed lanes of this construction area, I wonder if it was part of one of those. A few minutes later, my tire pressure indicator came on, just about the time my handling went downhill. (Not hugely -- good control the whole time. Took the next out off the highway, which is the historical-marker pull-off marking the lead-silver mines of Willow Creek Slide, if I have the nomenclature down right.

Effect: Now, the big(gest) problem with getting a flat tire on a Subaru is that if it turns out the tire must be replaced, you're supposed to replace the whole quartet. Even finding a place (an open place) within a hundred miles with the right size tires has been difficult, at least by the standards of 21st Century America. One shop (the tire center at a Wal-Mart in Smelterville), which AAA called to check and then reported to me had the right size tires (and to which I then arranged a tow), turned out *not* to have the right size; I'm glad I called to inquire about the price before I got towed there. So far I'm at 4 calls to AAA, 3 with the towing company, and at least five candidates for tire shop.

Les Schwab has some locations along 90, but all closed on Sunday. So, against my hopes of forward progress, I'm waiting for a tow truck (and it will be a wait yet) which will take me to CostCo in Coer d'Lane, which is a pretty good haul in the wrong direction, but which has a set of tires with my name on it. Best case scenario is that my tire is diagnosed as fixable, which I view as unlikely. Worst case scenario: I am hit by fragment of space debris, which nicks an artery, so I expire just before help can arrive. I suspect the outcome will be somewhere in the middle. Cheaper than death, but well over zero.

Other than that, the trip's been pleasant -- some rain, but mostly pleasant driving. Last night, lightning storm of high caliber at the rest stop where I stopped for a quick 7-hour nap. I've taken some notes which I'll try to transcribe later, about bits seen along the way. Took being stuck with a flat as a good oppty. to do some repacking, too -- though the car's as always fuller than ideal, at least now it's far more logically arranged: I can the stuff (all soft) behind the driver's seat now if I want to recline for a nap, for instance. Listened to a few episodes of EconTalk* and have been listening from the beginning -- despite some overlap in what I've heard -- to Ian rankin's "Fleshmarket Alley" (a D.I. Rebus mystery). Soon, some music, too -- I even have a 10,000 Maniacs disk in the player that I hadn't realized until last night.

*(Rivers on Polling was pretty good -- slightly dry delivery, but the content's interesting; as EconTalk goes, I'd give it a B-, but that's a decent grade. Russ Roberts on Equality I'd give the same grade; I'm glad he switches it up sometimes, but overall prefer the episodes with guests. Have 20 or so hours' worth to go on that disk, so all's well!)

Good luck

[cerberusss]

Good luck with the tires, and thanks for keeping us posted.