Thursday, April 1, 2010 – April Fool’s Day (a/k/a the Day of Hell)

We decided on trying out a new horse camp rather than one we’d been to before, so we headed south to Woods Ferry National Recreation Area, part of the Sumter National Forest just outside of Leeds, SC. It was mostly freeway, and looked pretty straightforward, and Gracie (my phone GPS) estimated it to be just over 3 and a half hours. Since it had been such a long day, we decided to forgo our usual 7:00 wakeup call, and slept till about 9:00. We packed up, headed out to the stables, picked put the horses and were on our way before noon, in plenty of time (we foolishly thought). This was the warmest day we had experienced, with temps well into the 80’s, and some of the roads were very rough. At once point I had to pull off once to cool down the van after a long climb. About two hours or so into the trip, BOOM! A tire blew out on the RV, the one I had repaired at Pohick Bay. We pulled over and went to work. We’ve had so much experience changing tires, we’ve got it down pat, plus this time we tried something new. We used some leveler pads we started using at crooked campsites, and rolled right up onto is, leaving the flat tire just high enough off the ground to only have to use the jack as a backup. It worked beautifully, and no pumping! I pulled out the generator, Hubby got out the electric lug wrench, I started the generator and began to remove the lug nuts, while he got out the spare tire out from the undercarriage. In less than 15 minutes, we were done. Gracie helped me find a nearby tire store in Spartanburg just a few miles away. We drove there, and discovered that it was more than just a blown plug, it was a broken bead around the edge, so we’d have to replace it. Unfortunately that particular store didn’t have what we needed, so I got on the phone and called around, finally finding a place less than 10 miles away, but killed a half hour doing it. So we hurried off, trying not to lose too much time. The guys at Master Tire were great! We would have had to wait for them to change the tire out, so we just had them mount it, then we drove off to a nearby Cracker Barrel parking lot, did our little tire routine again, and were ready to go in about another 15 minutes. Hit some more rough patches (Interstate 26 is a real MESS in that part of the western Carolinas!), then about a half hour later, BOOM! Another tire blows out on the RV, on the other side! I pulled off at once, fortunately it was right before an exit, so I pulled forward enough to get us on the shoulder on the exit rather than the highway, and went at it again. Fifteen minutes later, we were on the road and I was on the phone trying to find another tire. Of course, now it was getting late, and no one had one in stock, they’d all have to order one, and we’d already passed the largest towns where they might possibly have one, so we decided we could make it to the campground and sort it out once we got there. I didn’t have exact directions, for some reason the National Forest website, which is usually pretty good about such things, had no directions on it, so we were hoping for signage. Not much was to be seen, but I kept following my Google Earth map of where I THOUGHT it was, and kept going. We finally turned off on a road that looked like it was the place, but I didn’t want to take any chances on getting to a dead end with no turnaround, so I send Hubby ahead of me to check it out. His walkie-talkie was just about out of range when he told me to follow the road. He wasn’t at the campground yet, but he seemed to think we were going in the right direction. I followed him, losing touch on several occasions, the sun was just about down and things were looking bleak. At last he called back to say he was at the campground entrance, so I raced along as best I could to catch up to him. We met up at the entrance to loop A, and we walked around trying to select a good spot, then drove around loop B just to make sure. Loop B had several campsites that looked, once again, like they were being occupied by the homeless (at least they had a car and tents to sleep in), but no horse corrals. So back at loop A, we picked a spot that was very long, not terribly level, and closer to the road than I like, but I was in no mood to quibble. By the time I was backing up into it, I couldn’t see a thing, and had to maneuver between two stumps with only Hubby giving me guidance. At last, we were in! Got the horses settled, the animals fed, and poured a nice strong cocktail for us as we celebrated the end of an incredibly hellish day! Somehow, it was grossly appropriate that it was April Fools, but this was no fooling!