Day 3 - Holland, MI to Manistee, MI

We tend to say "we're looking forward to the adventure" almost sheepishly when describing an upcoming trip, as though we hope something exciting will happen. Adventures do happen and ours seem to happen when they're least expected. Today's is an example ...

Getting Started
The morning started great. We were up and dressed by 8:30. The sky was clear, the temperature was in the mid-70s and there was a light breeze. Carol started searching for a campground near Traverse City and Dick began connecting the trailer.

On the Road
Our planned route was simple. Drive north on US-31 and stop in about 190 miles at Traverse City.

Surprise #1
Carol finished her campground search by settling on Little River Casino Campground. They offer great services, low camping fees and other amenities. She made a reservation by phone and then entered the address into our GPS and ... surprise!

The campground was advertised in the Traverse City area of our directory, but it's really located in Manistee. The discovery shortened our trip by about 65 miles. Oh, well. No big deal, right? Actually, it turned out to be a big deal.

Surprise #2
We arrived in Manistee and were driving through town to the campground. We had just crossed the Manistee River and Dick was reflecting on having missed a sharp curb on the exit from the bridge when a guy in a pickup flagged us down ... a trailer tire on the curb side had gone flat!

Note: Dick had turned the new TPMS off after checking tire pressures earlier in the day.

Our first flat tire in 61,483 miles

We limped to a nearby parking area and were figuring out what to do when two police officers showed up. One was Police Chief David Bachman who is also the Manistee Director of Public Safety. They had received a call that we were in an accident. When we explained that we just had a flat tire, Chief Bachman sent the other officer away. We were clearly in good hands.

Chief Bachman describes our
location to the tire service company 

The Chief escorted us to Manistee Tire Service and returned later to make sure we were OK. He's planning to run for sheriff. We'd vote for him if we could.

The Adventure Ends
The tire service removed the damaged tire and installed the spare.

A steel belt separated and broke through the tread on the now useless tire. This was a tread failure, not a sidewall cut. We got 18,613 miles of towing and two years service out of the tire.

This one won't be patched

We ordered 4 new tires. They'll arrive tomorrow before noon.

Lots of Good News

• The tire didn't shred
• There was no rim or trailer damage
• We were near where we wanted to be when it happened
• We were travelling slowly at the time
• A local tire service could do the repairs
• We checked into the campground just a little later than planned
• The trip delay will be minimal

At the Campground
The camping facilities are very nice. 

Carol did laundry. Dick checked email and worked on the blog.

The wind picked up in the late afternoon and a gentle rain started around 6 pm.

We had a pleasant dinner at the casino buffet and didn't gamble.

Tomorrow
We'll get the new tires installed and head for Petoskey via Traverse City.