Exploring new Backyards !!!!

We are winding down our trip here in Florida.  We did not get to see all the backyards we thought we should explore while we were here, nor did we get to visit with all of our friends in the Sunshine state.  But, that is why we travel full time.  Hopefully, there will be other trips and differnt backyards to explore.  To our friends we missed on this trip we hope to see you the next time we swing through. 

  Before we left this part of the state, we took one last trip up to St. Augustine with our travel partners and friends, Bob and Donna Dembinski, and Pat's brother and sister in law, Chas and Sharon Lawrence.   St Augustine is very old, actually the oldest continually occupied European settled city in the United States.  From it's fort, Castillo de San Marcos and the old Lighthouse to the quaint little shops in the old section; St Augustine is a beautiful city and deserves more time than we gave it on this trip.

Castillo de San Marcos

Pat and George on the Rampart, the fort walls behind us were seashells compressed by nature into a rocklike substance.  Mined and cut into blocks by the early Spainish to be used in construction in and around St. Augustine.

Chas and Sharon on the Rampart with the river in the background

Bob and Donna on the Rampart with St. Augustine in the background

The Lighthouse at St Augustine.

We left the Space Coast, Kennedy Space Center RV park, and central Florida to drive up to the Florida Panhandle and stay in the Destin area on the Gulf for a few days before we start our journey back towards our beloved mountains of Colorado and family.  While in Destin we will get to see our daughter in law, Amy's parents and George's brother Dick and sister in law, Karen who will be coming up from the Orlando area.  Exploring, visiting, and golf are on the agenda for our stay here in Destin.  

We gave ourselves two days to travel to Destin before our reservation date in the RV park at Destin.  But as fate would have it we experienced one of the pitfalls of traveling thousands of miles a year in a vehicle with tires.  We had a blowout on our inside right rear tire.  As we sat along I-10 waiting for AAA to come to our rescue we thanked God that we gave ourselves a two day cushion to arrive in Destin.  Little did we realize AAA could not find a way to replace our tire after 5:00 pm, and we could not be towed (all the weight of the motor home would have been on the back tires) plus the fact that no one could find a tire that matched the other tires on our motor home - we found ourselves in a pickle!  You maybe wondering why we did not have a spare!  We took it off since we know we could not change the tire due to its weight and size plus the spare no longer matched the treads on the other tires we determined them to be dead weight!  A little known fact is that most large motor homes do not carry spare tires.

Now the adventure really began.....It was now dark, we were still on I-10 , the trucks and cars were narrowly missing us on the side of the highway, we were hungry, a little worried that someone would not see our flashers and we would be plowed into by another vehicle.  The questions were: Can we drive the motor home without the benefit of dual tires or would we risk having another blowout because of the weight on the one right side tire?  Would we ruin the rim of the flat tire if we drove to the next exit?  Was there room at the next exit for two motor homes to safely park and wait till the next morning to get help?  These questions and a few more gave us more than a little concern.  But since we could not stay on the side of I-10 overnight we really had no choice but to tempt fate and drive slowly to the next exit.  As we drove down I-10 with flasher on all four vehicles (both motor homes and our tow vehicles) warning other drivers we had a problem, it seemed that every other car or truck on the road that night tried to come as close as possible to us even though we were as far to the right as the pavement would allow us.  That probably wasn't true but it seemed that way.  Obviously we made it to the exit.  The road into Marianne was a very dark single lane road  and it appeared that the town was a couple of miles off the interstate.  However, Bob and Donna raced ahead of us and found a very unusual place to park for the night!!!  See below...

This is the tire that allowed us to visit Marianne, Florida

We spent the night at the Jackson County Correction facility!  This has to rank up near the top of the most unusal backyards we have stayed in for the night.

As in most of our adventures and misadventures we have a silver lining.  The people at the correctional facility were very gracious when we explained our problem and they told us to enjoy our stay at their wonderful facility (overnight was enough thank you).  At breakfast the next morning we met a lovely lady, who overheard us talking about our problems (was she being nosey or just curious?).  She gave us the address of an independent tire repair service.  The men at the tire service went out of their way to be helpful (yes they also made a little money for their time but were extremely nice).  Even though they were not a Goodyear repair service, they sent a man to Tallahassee to buy our correct tire, came back to the motor home and mounted the new tire on the spot, put both tires back on the motor home and they did this all within a couple of hours.  We were on our way until we stopped for gas..... we discovered our inside tire was flat again.  Now 50 miles from the tire repair shop we called and told them our problem.  They immediately dispatched their truck, fixed the problem (it was the valve stem) and got us on our way again.  It never ceases to amaze us how many wonderful people are in the country.  We meet them everyday on our travels and it is so refreshing to know that Americans are really good people no matter what the rest of the world thinks. 

To our friends and family, if you think we have a wonderful life, full of adventure and good times, we will remind you that not everyday is filled with sunshine and wonderful adventures.  We too have our share of life's little problems.  We hope you think of the problems in you life as we do...we see them as opprotunities.  The difference is only in perspective!

Have a wonderful day!!!