{"id":10305,"date":"2021-08-05T13:52:53","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T17:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/?p=10305"},"modified":"2022-01-20T00:39:18","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T05:39:18","slug":"first-pilgrimage-and-a-blowout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/05\/first-pilgrimage-and-a-blowout\/","title":{"rendered":"First pilgrimage and a blowout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Rusty at Jett’s grave<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I used my last full day in Massachusetts to make a pilgrimage to Jett’s grave in Rockport MA. I wanted to see how her engraved headstone looked (pretty good, I think) and to say all the things that, in retrospect, I should have said while she was alive. Like “thank you for a wonderful life together.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took Rusty and let him see the grave, against cemetery rules. He was unimpressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Clam strip lunch<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I was also hoping to get some candy at Tuck’s<\/a>. But it is peak tourist season in Rockport and my truck is huge, so it quickly became apparent that I would be unable to park anywhere near the store. My consolation prize was a clam strip lunch at Woodman’s of Essex<\/a>, one of the finest fried seafood places in New England. I did take-out so that Rusty wouldn’t be alone in the truck. I enjoyed the feast very much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To that point it had been a fine day. However, that all changed as I was about to exit I-95 in Waltham to make a quick stop at Costco (yes, it is possible to make a quick stop at Costco). BLAM! My right rear outer tire exploded. To call is a “blowout” would be understating the event. The tire exploded with such force that it took out most of the truck’s right rear quarter-panel. Serious damage – probably over $2,000. But because the truck has dual rear wheels, I didn’t even have to get a tow – I just drove the truck 30 miles to my local tire dealer and made an appointment to replace the tire the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The blowout damage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I checked with a GMC dealer on how readily available this part would be. I figured that it might be difficult finding such a large part for a 17-year-old truck. And I was right – there is precisely one <\/strong>part available in the US and it is in Nebraska. There are other options to be investigated (e.g., after-market parts or junk parts) but it is pretty clear that this will not be a quick fix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What caused this catastrophic tire failure? My first thought was that my tire pressure gauge was faulty and I had over-inflated the tire. But after buying a new gauge I found that the pressures in the remaining tires were all exactly what I wanted. Was the tire worn? It had over 40,000 miles but still had plenty of tread – it would have passed inspection. And even worn tires are not supposed to explode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So my current theory is that it was a bad tire. It was a Goodyear Wrangler which has a sad history<\/a> of exploding. The good news? I wasn’t standing next to it when it blew up. I wasn’t hauling an 8-ton fifth wheel. I wasn’t trying to make a 7:45am flight (which is what I will be doing tomorrow). And I was in the right-hand lane so the flying shrapnel didn’t damage any other vehicles or people. And I don’t think it will delay the TS7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I will never buy another Goodyear tire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I used my last full day in Massachusetts to make a pilgrimage to Jett’s grave in Rockport MA. I wanted to see how her engraved headstone looked (pretty good, I think) and to say all the things that, in retrospect, I should have said while she was alive. Like “thank you for a wonderful life … Continue reading »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,47,62,8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures","category-family","category-food","category-places-ma","category-places"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1VniU-2Gd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10305"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10848,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10305\/revisions\/10848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}