One of the things you never really want to forget out here on the road is just how dangerous it really is. I mean 4 wheeling it drunk down the highway is one thing but here in my world I mean being drunk? LMAO. NO ONE is that stupid. It’s perfectly natural to be part of a horrific wreck stone cold sober, because we are dealing with extremely large heavy vehicles. Rosie weighs 32,000 lbs. She also pulls a 5300 Lbs Ford F150. Thats 37,300 lbs BEFORE you count the golf cart or anything else in the truck and on board. 40,000 lbs is like driving 10 normal size cars all at once. oh and you are like 65 feet long. There is that too. And so you get your entire household, everything you hold dear and own on earth, your pets, your kid(s) and put it all in drive… And down the road you go. And you know heres the thing. Not if. WHEN shit goes wrong…. You want to be ahead of the curve. I was taught at a very young age – it takes two people to have an accident. Someone has to do something stupid, and someone else has to fail to avoid it. Well thats Daily life to an RVr. Out there on the road. lol. I mean here you are 40 THOUSAND pounds up to speed 65 feet long cruising down the highway at 70 MPH, you know what you are doing? You are watching the approaching exit and the stupid teenage bimbo in the honda flying up the drivers side and your already canceling cruise control and taking your foot off the accelerator because you already know exactly what is about to happen. That stupid little bimbo failed physics in high school is about to swoop in front of you and slam the breaks to make that exit – and had you NOT seen it coming. They would have been a speed bump and flatter then a pancake. You just avoided that and its part of the life driving something this big out there. It takes an INCREDIBLE amount of brain power to drive these things. You are watching TEN cars ahead at all times. Pot Holes. Shoulders. Trucks coming up the rear quarter want to blow you off the road like a tin can. You are sweating as you grab that wheel both hands Praying to God you get where you are going and this is basically how it goes every time you move. lol. It gets easier but it never gets any easier. If you can drive 8-10 hours a day in a car. You can handle about 4 hours a day driving a camper. Thats basically what it amounts to and thats why I pick walmarts along the way to park and close my eyes and rest my mind. Because it is STRESSFUL.

So last weekend I took off on a 700 mile voyage from Tennessee to Florida, and blew a front left tire on the truck doing around 70mph on I-75. The fact that I am here typing about it and laughing should tell you how serious I take this crap out there. and you should too. anyone pulling this much weight. YOU are responsible.. BE READY…

AT first it took me a bit to figure out what had just happened. But my instincts kicked in – instantly. MASH THE GAS. Remember this. If you Blew a tire or lost a bag or maybe just exited a valley into a wide open plane and suddenly have a 55mph cross wind to contend with…. The Physics are identical….. INCREASE forward momentum…. This is also why you should never run wide open and or be tailgating other vehicles.. have room both highway and pedal at all times… Gas is your friend… You increase forward momentum in almost all instances. And you are not trying to go out in a blaze of glory I mean I am talking seconds here. You increase it long enough to shift the counteractive forces to the steering wheel. You blew a tire ok theres this new sideways force at work on us now. We powered forward for a few seconds to stay going strait, now we gotta deal with this on the steering wheel. So we steer into the new sideways force and we slowly start easing off the Gas. GAS is the way we regain control here. But our goal is to stop. So we ease off ease off ease off and we start using controlled breaking and we get stopped on the side of the highway…

OK but now what… The camper itself is literally ASKING for a major major wreck on the side of I-75, I mean its rocking so bad as the big trucks pass – shit is falling out of cabinets. we CANT stay here. So we drop the truck… We leave it there on the highway. Keys under the mat. Its a HARD decision to make. But its the right one. Drop the truck and get the hell out of there….. I found a Mavis that was open and parked there. Called a Tow Truck….

It took an hour… But the truck eventually caught up with me. Progressive roadside and what ever local towing place – they worked it out…. The truck found me.

I then had them replace all 4 tires check everything out….. and I drove it a bit locally. Back down the road we go…

It NEVER gets easier my friends… You never stop having anxiety out there. It just gets more comfortable with time. This life is a hard one. The parks are the easy part. 🙂 Being parked is fabulous. The less glamorous part though is driving to the next destination. Be ready. Be alert. Be rested. Be sober. Arrive safe. and Happy Trails !