THE BIG BANG THEORY

 It's usually the remnants of it that you see scattered on the roadway, and on rare occasions it scares the crap out of you when you witness it happening in front of you.  What is it you ask?  The big bang of a tire blowing out. In the almost 6 years that Craig and I have made a life driving on the highways of this country and Canada, we have never had a actual blowout while driving...........until yesterday.  Yep, mark that one off our list of experiences and adventures.

Craig is heading North ,as I begin my migration North early tomorrow morning, in what we hope will be the reunion in Spokane that will get me back on the truck this weekend.  He was enjoying his usual radio shows, when he heard the "pop" and knew instantly that he had blown a trailer tire.  When he called later to tell me about it, I had asked if he had noticed if any of the rubber had flown off, and in his usual sense of humor responded with " I didn't see anyone chasing me down or passing me while giving me the finger, so I'm assuming all was okay".

He safely pulls off at the next exit and gets out to survey the damage, locating the one outside trailer tire that had met it's demise and the collateral damage of one mud flap that would need to be replaced.  A quick phone call into Road Service started the ball rolling to have the nearby TA send one of their service techs to replace the tire, but the mud flap would have to wait until he could get to the truck stop.

When it gets to the truck stop repair bay he is asked the normal questions, but the one that has gotten him the most reaction is the question of what type of engine he has.  In his new Kenworth, he has a PACCAR engine, and most techs are curious to see what it looks like.  As Craig tells me, they all want to look, but no one seems to know how to work on them.  Thankfully, this time around, his engine wasn't what needed to be repaired.  He walked into the store to grab a cup of coffee and a sandwich, and was surprised that upon his return to the repair bay, his mud flap has been replaced.

And just like that he is headed back North again, headed to the Fred Meyer DC in Clackamas, OR to make a delivery of fresh off the boat bananas tomorrow morning.  We don't know for sure, but we hope he will then get a load headed to Spokane, where I will be waiting with my duffel bag to hop back onto the truck and make myself comfortable to report back to you our life on the road viewed from the passenger seat.