Special Sunday

This morning I discovered that our rear passenger side tire was low on air. So I pulled out my air hose and the regulator. But when I tried to connect the hose to my air outlet, the male part didn't get seated right, so air could escape and I didn't get any pressure. It worked well last year so don't know what is wrong this time.

While I was still standing outside contemplating what to do, a semi pulled up to me. Driver shouted out the window whether I needed air. Then he got out and unrolled his own air hose proceeding to check and pump up my tire. My tire was down to 60PSI while it's supposed to hold a 100.

How could that tire suddenly lose 40 PSI?

While this young trucker was pumping the tire we got into a short conversation. Noticing my accent he inquired about my origin. Then he told me that he himself was from Israel and had come to the US as an adolescent.

Besides of being so helpful to a stranger he was the nicest guy ever. What a pleasure meeting him.

Now, of course we got worried about that tire and whether it would lose air again, so we pulled over across the road to a LOVES Truck Stop.

My inquiry whether they could please check out my tire was answered with "We don't work on motorhomes".

Now, the guy who gave that answer cannot be blamed, I'm sure it's LOVES company policy. But I must say that the answer left me perplexed. There is hardly a difference between a truck tire and a Class A DP tire. And they were not even busy this Sunday morning.

So back on the highway we went. Bea went online and found a small Mexican tire place in a little town just off the highway. I called the owner and he confirmed that he could help and was available. After some 20 miles down the road we found his place. He and his helper, both from Mexico, were just trying to help another motorhome owner from New York who had a broken down exhaust pipe.

Together they took off our tire, spayed soapy water on it  but found no hole. It was kind of hard to believe, but I had followed their work and I knew that no air was escaping from our tire. 

So the tire was mounted back on, and we could continue our journey with a little delay, but also with the piece of mind knowing that everything was good.

We rode through Amarillo and eventually entered New Mexico. We had planned to stay 2 days at Santa Rosa Lake State Park.

But then I noticed our coolant temperature was rising whenever we drove up an incline. We turned on the heater to take heat away from the motor, and it helped for a short time, but then the temperature went up again.

The road to the State Park rises in elevation and I understood that it wouldn't work out with this new problem. So we found a nice rest area east of Santa Rosa and settled in for the night. Tomorrow morning I can take off the lit of the coolant container, check the level and refill more liquid. But we must keep an eye on this as I suspect one or the other reason for the coolant getting too hot.

So today might not have been the top ideal travel day, but there was something really positive in the way we got our tire problem solved.

It was the fact that both individuals were not born-Americans. One from Israel, the other from Mexico, while a big American company employs policies denying an RVer in distress necessary help. To protect these individual's privacy, I will not post any pictures showing their place or their faces. But if YOU ever find help by an immigrant, you must remember that without these great hard-working people AMERICA will lose out big time. Yes of course, they should be in the country legally, but it is also the obligation of the US-Government to provide a process for, permanent residency which can be followed without having to jump through a bunch of everlasting hoops making hiring of lawyers necessary. And there should be an amnesty for folks without criminal record and who have stayed, worked and paid taxes for years. All they want is enjoy a better life for themselves and their family.