Well, we had a very interesting day today, and not the good kind of interesting. We left Poplar Bluff around 8:30 this morning. We travelled west through the Ozarks of southern Missouri, enjoying the landscape of rolling hills - way more interesting than the flat farmlands of Indiana (sorry Hoosiers!). We drove through Springfield and Joplin and then entered Kansas. So here we are in the southeastern corner of Kansas where there is pretty much nothing. The largest town in the vicinity is Pittsburg (no h), Kansas, population 20,000. And that's when things got interesting. 

We heard a noise as we were driving down the road, like we either ran over something, or something fell off the truck or camper. We pulled over to take a look, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. So we continued down the road. Then the warning sound in the truck went off alerting us to the fact that our front left tire was low on air pressure, and losing pressure quickly. Oh no - flat tire. So we pulled over to the shoulder on the side of the highway where traffic was whizzing by beside us. Yes, this is where you think about all those stories you heard on the news where people got hit while changing a flat tire on the side of the road. 

Shortly after we pulled over and began to work on changing the tire, a man in a white sedan pulled up, asking if we needed any help. Joe told him that we had a flat tire, and that he thought he was okay with changing it (meanwhile Kay is thinking, NOOOO, let him help us!!! Don't turn down an offer of help changing a flat tire on the side of a busy highway.) Anyway, we chatted with him awhile. Joe asked him of some places nearby where we could get a tire fixed, or buy a new tire if necessary. The man told us of a few local places. Then he told us about a "great" sandwich shop called Angelos, and began describing the sandwiches. Getting back to the tire conversation, we asked directions, and then just to clarify, Joe said "And that will take us to the tire place?" to which the man said, "No, that's the directions to Angelos." Well, we enjoy a good sandwich as much as the next guy, but at this point we were more interested in where to get our tire repaired.

Just before the man in the sedan left, a Kansas State Trooper showed up and asked us if everything was okay. We told him about the flat tire situation. He was very nice and also very young. He stayed with us the whole time we changed the tire, offering advice, suggestions, and lending a hand here and there. The process of changing the tire is not very easy on that size vehicle: a Superduty truck. It involves first and foremost, locating the jack 😀, then locating the spare tire (turns out it was UNDER the truck), releasing the tire using a pulley and a cable, figuring out where to put the jack, etc. About 20 minutes after the guy in the sedan had left, he came back, this time in a truck, with a garage floor jack and an impact wrench which is used to put the lug nuts back on the tire. Replacing the lug nuts with an impact wrench took about 30 seconds; had we done it by hand, it would have taken considerably longer. 

About an hour after we pulled over, we were on our way - spare tire on vehicle, damaged tire in the back of the truck. We headed to the tire shop (not to Angelos) where we inquired about the possibility of repairing the tire. Bad news - it couldn't be repaired. And they didn't have one like it that we could purchase. We got on the phone and called a few places and located a place a few miles away that has the tire we needed. However, by this time it was after 5, and they were getting ready to close. The guy told Joe that he opened at 7:30 in the morning, and said that we could come by then and he would be able to replace the tire. 

Well, with that being the plan, now we needed a place to stay. Even though we tow our "house" with us, we can't just set it up anywhere. We drove to a Pittsburg (no h) city park that supposedly has about 12 RV spaces, hoping and praying that one of the places would be vacant. When we arrived at the park, we saw a sign that said "No vacancies". It was unusual because it looked like a permanent sign, and it was attached to a fence. This being a city park, it was run by government officials, which meant that since it was after 5, no one answered the phone. So we weren't able to ask about availability. We drove through the park and some of the spaces were marked "reserved" while others had no such sign. We asked someone, a fellow camper, and he said to just grab a spot that wasn't reserved. Good enough for us. So that's what we did. Now we are hoping we don't get a knock on the door in the middle of the night with someone saying sorry, you guys have to leave. I'll let you know on tomorrow's blog if we made it through the night without being kicked out of the city park in Pittsburg (no h).

The City Park is actually very nice. Very cheap, and has full hookups, free wi-fi (hence this blog update), and even cable tv. I hope we are able to enjoy the amenities until 7:30 tomorrow morning. After we replace our tire, maybe we'll treat ourselves to one of those sandwiches at Angelos that Mr. Sedan told us about.

So far we've traveled almost 1200 miles, and yet here we are in Pittsburg (but without an h).

Our campsite for the night (we hope)