Day 65, Tuesday, November 17, 2009 – 390 miles

WE MADE IT!!!!

However, it was not exactly smooth sailing. To start, the weather forecast for Stevens Pass which is the high point in the Cascade Mountains on US2, our preferred route, was borderline conditions. It had been snowing, and the DOT cameras showed it was not melting. Snoqualmie Pass on I90, however, was bare and wet. We chose to use the latter.

The drive over was OK. Traffic was not very heavy once we left the Seattle area. There was intermittent sun before we started climbing. After that, we went through rain into snow showers. The snow melted on contact, so no problems.

Our goal was to get home by 5:00 in time to watch the Gonzaga/Michigan State basketball game. Bobby was coming over to watch it with us. We were within 5 miles of home (passing under the Pines Road overpass, for those familiar with Spokane) when, you aren't going to believe this, we had another blowout, this one on the driver side rear of the truck. It was dark, rainy, in rush hour, and I was in the center lane. I hit the emergency blinkers and, fortunately, those around me took notice and gave me room to get to the side. I was parked in the "no-man's-land" between the highway and the east bound on ramp from Pines.

We pay for AAA, so I called for someone to come change the tire. They told me it would be within the hour, and that I would have to disconnect the trailer. Rather than wait, I proceeded to start the job myself. First would be to get the spare from under the pickup bed. That took me about 15 minutes since I had to learn how as I went. I figured, what the hell, and started replacing the tire. I jacked up the axle with the trailer attached with no problem. I was down to two lug nuts when the DOT emergency roadside assistance truck arrived. He has an electric impact tool that made the balance of the job easy and fast. We made it home about 5:30 to the rest of the ball game and lasagna that Tracy prepared.

We had a nice visit with Marian Hendrix and her dachshund, Millie. Due to the weather, we left earlier than planned, but we now are planning a visit for the annual Seattle Flower Show in February. That will be a car trip, no trailer, and hopefully, Pat and Vic Gilica will go with us.

Our total mileage for the trip was 12,899 miles. The original estimate was 13, 364, so we were within 3.5%. Most of the miles saved were the result of taking freeways to save time. No regrets. As mentioned yesterday, we will have followup posts later this week.