Will it, or won’t it?
Driving
to Anchorage and Wasilla was not a fun experience. It should normally only take
me about four to four and a half hours at the most to get to Wasilla from
Homer. It took nearly seven hours to get to Wasilla, all of which I debated if
the trailer would even make it there. It was not a fun drive at all. Plus, I
was tired, driving makes me sleepy anyhow, and so I was fighting against my own
sleepiness the whole time as well.
Wobbly
is the best word I have to describe the trailer. I seemed to like to wobble
left to right and fish tail at the slightest swerve. I was frustrated beyond
belief by the time I made it to town. My friend Miranda was supposed to be
making the trip with me, however due to scheduling conflicts she was unable to
come with. She had volunteered her husband, Jacob, to do the drive with me
instead. He was willing, likes driving and taking road trips, and so Zac and I
planned for Jacob to drive back with me instead of Miranda. When I arrived in
Wasilla, one of the first things Jacob did was check out the tires on the
trailer, checking tire pressure, etc. Come to discover, the tire that was
supposedly ‘fixed’ by the previous owners had dry rot, which I hadn’t noticed
before or known exactly what to look for, and (yes, AND) the tires were two
different sizes. The sizes were only slightly different, not noticeable just by
glancing, but could easily be what caused the wobble.
Good
to find this out before leaving Wasilla. Not good to find this our when I was
planning on leaving and it was a Sunday night with no place open. But, so be
it. We found a place to take the trailer first thing in the morning, got their
hours, stayed in Wasilla for the evening, and then left right away in the a.m.
to try to get the tires fixed. From bad to worse can describe how this entire
trip went, including our visit to the tire shop. Both tires needed to be
replaced, needed to be made for a (much) higher grade load, and I would need a
spare with a rim “just in case” something went wrong, which I totally agreed
with, but hoped we wouldn’t need. The two tires were changed out, the ‘good’
tire was deceiving and was so soft and used that it practically folded in on
itself once it was off the trailer. The “specialists” at the tire shop came in
slightly flabbergasted at the beginning and said it was probably a good thing
we came in when we did because they didn’t thing the tires would have made it
another 10 miles even before I would have blown one or both. We mentioned that
I’d just drove in from Homer on them yesterday and there was a look of utter
shock on their faces, which scared me a bit, but helped to explain why I had
been worried I would even make it. Because, I may not have.
Now,
one more day further behind schedule, but the trailer was sitting up much
higher, looked better, drove better, and was on the right tires for what was
being done. Granted, I was now hundreds of dollars over what I had anticipated,
but I had some wiggle room, just in case. At least at this point I did. Again,
this whole thing became an ‘ordeal.’
