417 miles via I-95, I-4, County 557, US 17 and FL 31.

This was the last hop of the relatively short QTS and I was hoping to complete the trip with no “dings” to report. Alas, ’twas not to be. We got two rather significant dings on Saturday.

Day 1: Savannah, GA, to Daytona Beach, FL

208 miles, almost entirely on I-95, with a lunch break at a rest area just north of Jacksonville

QTS Hop 4, Day 1

The day started badly: as we were pulling in the slides in preparation for leaving Savannah, a cable on the left bunkhouse slide snapped. With a little cursing and some manual assistance, we got the slide properly stowed, but it was a bad start to what turned out to be a very bad day.

The trip down I-95 to the lunch break at the “Welcome to Florida!” rest area just north of Jacksonville was uneventful. We pulled into a slot next to a travel trailer owned by a 79-year-old gentleman who came over to strike up a conversation with me while I was eating my bologna sandwich and Jett was in the tourism office collecting brochures that we will likely discard before reading. He was waiting for assistance in fixing a blowout. I commiserated and, naturally, told of our “adventures” with exploding tires. I got out to show him our damage and directed his attention to the spare tire that was still mounted on the right rear from our near-flat in Louisville in early July. Anyway, when Jett got back we wished him well and went on our merry way, grateful that we were not the ones who had to deal with a blowout. Nope, we were headed for Daytona Beach, just 90 minutes away. We would arrive by 2pm, which would give us plenty of time to actually visit the beach.

Then, 20 miles later, just as we were approaching the Danes Point Bridge on the I-295 East Beltway around Jacksonville (which, ironically, we took on the advice of the gentleman at the rest area)… BLAM!!!

Yup, another blowout. Our fourth, if you include the one that was my fault. The three blowouts and the near-flat were all rear-tire failures. That makes sense as the rear tires carry more weight than the front ones because we can’t make the RV totally level when towing, due to the height of the bed of the truck. But they are not carrying so much weight that they should blow out so frequently. All of the blown tires had less than 2,000 miles of use. Only the near-flat was a failure of a tire with more than 5,000 miles on it.

Patience, awaiting assistance

As explosive blowouts go, this one was pretty ugly. The noise alone just about gave Jett a heart attack. I immediately looked in the side-view mirrors and saw debris – I am still not sure from what – bouncing all over the road behind me. Once again I was lucky, in that no one was in the right lane (I was in the center lane), so I was able to get to the breakdown lane without running anyone off the road. I was also lucky in that there was a breakdown lane. I was able to brake to a hard stop just before the breakdown lane narrowed to nearly nothing as the approach to the bridge began. If the tire had blown 10 seconds later I would have blocked at least a partial lane of traffic. If it had blown a minute later I would have been on the bridge and would have blocked an entire traffic lane.

Lucky, I guess. Though I would have felt much luckier if it had not happened at all. Or if it had not done considerable damage to the RV, including peeling away more sheet metal, ripping off a big chunk of insulation from the underside of the kitchen slide and (we discovered later) cracking the plywood flooring of the kitchen so we now have a very noticeable ridge in front of the sink.

Jett, Grace and Rusty cooling their heels

I also would have felt a lot luckier if help had arrived sooner. As it was, the tire was not replaced until 3 hours later. At least there was a grassy area where Jett and the dogs could relax while I paced incessantly, trying to figure out some way to fix the flat myself (nope, couldn’t do it). Jett even had a little nap while waiting.

When the tire was finally in place we discovered that the pressure in the (new) spare tire was just 45 psi rather than the recommended 65 psi. We could not make it to Daytona Beach with a tire with pressure that low. So the roadside assistance guy escorted us to a service station where we could inflate it. But we missed the entrance and had to U-turn in a shopping center parking lot, which was like turning an aircraft carrier around in the Charles River. Then we found that we would have to turn the RV around in the service station to get the air hose to reach the bad tire, which was like turning an aircraft carrier around in a bathtub, so Jett got out and directed traffic while I threaded the rig through the gas pumps. Very exciting. But not in a pleasant way.

We finally got the tire inflated, got on the road again and made it to the RV park in Daytona Beach at 6:08pm, just 4 hours later than planned.

And with 2 dings added to our ledger.

The red marker on the map is where the blowout occurred.

We didn’t get much opportunity to sample what the Sunshine Holiday Daytona RV Resort had to offer, but I can tell you, without equivocation, that it was not worth the price we paid. It was, at $66 for a single night, one of the most expensive places we have stayed. And when we arrived the office was closed and the sun was long gone, so we had to find our way to our site and get set up in the dark. And it started to rain.

Tight site

The roads in the park are very narrow, the turns very tight and the pull-thrus very small. High price and poor facilities – a very bad combination. I think this makes our 10 Least Enjoyable parks list.

On the positive side, the staff there (which I met on Sunday morning) was very helpful and the pool was just about the best we have seen – second only to the pool at Paradise in Phoenix.

Sunday morning we decided to try to replace the spare. Finding a tire shop that was open on Sunday was not easy. I drove over 25 miles without success. But after returning to the park the nice folks in the office mentioned a PepBoys shop about 5 miles away. I called and they did, in fact, have a tire for me. So I ran over there and got a new tire mounted on the rim. That made the final day of the QTS a little more carefree. Besides, Murphy’s Law says that if I hadn’t gotten the tire we would have had another blowout.

Day 2: Daytona Beach, FL, to North Ft Myers, FL

209 miles via I-95, I-4, County 557, US 17 and FL 31, with a lunch break in a Publix parking lot in Winter Haven.

QTS Hop 4, Day 2

This was a fairly leisurely jaunt through central Florida. The I-4 segment was annoying because the whole route was under construction, meaning the road was rough and the shoulders were often non-existent. But the US 17 and FL 31 segments were flat and straight. With very little traffic.

The most interesting part of the trip was lunch. We pulled into a Publix parking lot and Jett went in to get us some sandwiches. I had to position the rig so it wouldn’t block anybody and try to figure out how to exit – not a simple matter as it turned out the the way out that I expected to use was actually an entrance. I finally opted for a U-turn in the lot, then exit the way we came in. But I had to back up a bit to get enough room for the turn, which meant that Jett had to stand behind the rig and block traffic – something that she hates. But we made it.

When we got to the Seminole Campground the office was closed and there was no answer at the phone number posted on the office door. So, after 1,500 miles, we couldn’t complete the last 300 feet of the trip. Fortunately, one of the maintenance people came along and we figured out where we were supposed to be. Before backing into the site, I gave the number another try and got an answer. The manager confirmed that we were at the right site, so we finished the trip.

I will, of course, describe the campground more fully later. No rush on that as we will be here for 4 months. But our initial impression?

We love it!