Starting the Trip With a Bang

And not just as a matter of speech. A real, live, "what the hell was that?" bang. Fourteen miles up I-75 from Gainesville, the rear passenger-side tire on the trailer shredded to pieces. Luckily, I was able to quickly steer the rig to the side of the road without doing any damage to the rim. About an hour later, the roadside assistance truck arrived -- Town Tire from Gainesville. The guy was friendly enough, asked us where were from. I think he expected us to say that we were from some far away locale. When we told him "Gainesville," he laughed and said "Didn't get very far, huh?" We did make it to our planned overnight in Mobile, AL, without any further incidents, and other than some cosmetic damage to the trailer, everything seems to be working fine. They say you haven't earned your RV stripes until you've experienced your first blowout. Hopefully, we won't earn any more stripes on this trip.