"The Way West"...Day 84...Wednesday, September 5, 2012

It's 6:00AM...my mouth is bone-dry and my head hurts. Hmm...maybe I shouldn't have had those three "Cherry Bombs" around 10:00PM last night. Two Advils, half a liter of Gatorade, a carton of coconut water and two coffees...good to go!
When I'm traveling with the camper, I have a "mental checklist" that I go through every single time before I get on the road...hitch tight on the ball, safety chains attached, wiring harness plugged in, windows shut, doors and hatch closed and locked...visual inspection of the tires and axle. This is sort of like the checklist that airplane pilots use...you go through it every time without fail...it becomes "second nature".
This morning, everything is a "go"...except that wheel...is it looking odd or is it just my imagination. It's the same wheel that fell of in North Dakota, so I'm a little leery. It looks a little "bent out", but I'm thinking it's just because of the uneven surface of the concrete slab that I'm parked on.
So...at around 7:15AM, I'm on the road...out of the French Quarter and up onto I-10. I've driven maybe twenty miles when I hear a car horn honking...it's the car next to me, and they're pointing at the wheel on my camper. I roll down the window, and a girl yells..."Dude, you're wheel's about to fall off". Great. I immediately exit the Interstate and pull over to inspect things. Bad news...my wheel is bent outward about thirty degrees or so...the bearing is probably going bad. I use the Garmin to find a Firestone Auto Service store and pull in. The guy takes a look and says that there's nothing that he can do. He sends me five miles down the road to a trailer dealer...they look at it...it's the plate on the axle that the spindle is bolted/welded to...it's cracked and bent...catastrophic failure is imminent. They tell me that they can't fix it, and send me to another place...Hickory Truck & Auto Repair. The owner there is a nice friendly Cajun-type. He takes a look at the wheel/axle and immediately assures me that this can be fixed...I feel better already. Soon, his guys set to work...remove the wheel, heat up the "plate" with a torch, bend the spindle back into place (carefully checking things with a "level". Then they weld the plate back together...building up a "ridge" to hold everything in place. When the weld has cooled, they grease the bearing and remount the wheel. The whole process takes about two hours...and...they only charge me $100.00.
Now I'm back on the road, but running a few hours late. It's almost 9:00 by the time I pull into the Days Inn Knoxville...check in...drop my stuff...head across the parking lot to Applebee's. I have a double Maker's on the rocks, a few appetizers, a few beers. Back to the Days Inn and sleep.