Day 277, The drive home

As expected, my folks were up early, but so was I.  I woke up at 6:30am and was ready to hit the road.  After a small breakfast of fresh fruit, coffee and an oatmeal raisin cookie, we were all set to go.

We had filled up the car the night before, so with a full tank we would be more than able to make it home (445 miles).  I was very impressed with the car as it was averaging 25.3 mpg and for a very large sedan it seemed very reasonable.  It was exactly 7am and the cars navigation had calculated the best route and estimated our arrival time home at 2:45pm.



Rest stop outside of Susanville, CA

 By 10:30am we were just outside of Susanville, CA and my Mother suggested we stop at the rest stop, which she new was a very nice.  It was actually a extremely nice rest stop on the edge of lake and wildlife area.  I snapped a picture or two and after a few minutes we were ready to head up the road.  As my Mother went to get in the back seat she noticed the back tire was going flat.  It was about half way down and I figured I could find someone (an RV) with a pump.  The first guy I asked had one and was more than happy to help.  He had one of those little electric pumps you plug into a cigaret lighter, but after 5 minutes it wasn't doing anything.  We turned the pump off and I could hear air leaking from the tire.  There was no way were going to pump it and drive the 14 miles to Susanville and the Les Schwab Tire Center. 

I made several calls, one to AAA and one to Les Schwab, both of them could send someone to change the tire, but none could fix the tire.  I am more than capable of changing a tire, so we decided to change the tire and drive on in to Susanville.  The real problem was unloading a trunk that was packed to gills, but we manage to take everything out and remove the full size spare.  When I got the car jacked up and the tire removed, we were all in complete shock.  The entire inside of the tire was gone and the wire threads were showing all the way around the tire.  Why it didnt blow while I was driving (hmm maybe just a little over the 65mph speed limit), was amazing. 

The tire had held together and the pressure let go as the car was parked in the parking lot. There was no indication that I had driven on a flat tire as the sidewall looked fine and the car has a tire pressure monitoring system and it had not indicated any pressure issues and the car drove beautifully.  Of course when I started the car the system was saying "Flat tire".  The timing was amazing and obviously someone up above was watching out for us. 

With the spare firmly in place and the trunk re-packed we headed to Susanville and Les Schwab.  We had them check the lug nuts and the tire pressure all the way around.  We also asked if he could check the other back tire and he was shocked to see that it too was showing threads.  There was something seriously wrong with the back two tires and the camber of the tires.  My father had just had the car serviced and inspected at the Palm Springs BMW dealer but something was really wrong. 

The real problem is that the car is equiped with 19" staggered low profile Perrelli tires and no one in Susanville or even Reno, NV had them.  There wasn't even a tire that would fit the 10" wide rim that could get us home.  We were looking at a two day stay to get a new tire delivered and as nice as Susanville is, we were all looking forward to going home.

We decided to head to Klamath Falls, 130 miles North, and try our luck there.  The tire was holding air and we figured if I drove below the speed limit we could limp our way North and if the tire lets go, we could have the car transported back home.  Once in Klamath Falls, there were no stores that had the tire, so we kept on driving and made it to Bend, where we quickly ordered 4 new tires. The tire held up over 300 miles and got us safely home. 

We unloaded the car and I had to give it a bath and remove the millions of bugs that we had smashed on the 943 mile journey.   And with the car clean and shinny as new, my Father parked it in the garage until the new tires arrive on Wednesday.  He will have the alignment checked and he will have a few strong words with BMW of Palm Springs.

I got home around 6pm and it was nice to see the place.  The chickens were out and man had they made a mess of my yard over the week. 

It was good to be home.