Travel mishaps aside, I finally arrived at the Escape Rally!

The reason they call them checklists is that you should probably check them . . . BEFORE you're a hundred miles away :-[ 

I spent a lovely, but extremely (weather advisory/warning) windy couple of days near Maryhill museum and winery.  I was excited to start north on Wednesday and get to the rally a day early.  I got all hooked up, cat in the car, and pulled maybe two feet out of my campsite when I had the random thought, "I'll need my passport for the border crossing".  Followed quickly by the realization that my passport was still locked up at home,  followed by some very bad language that caused the cat to take refuge in the back seat!  

Back up, put the cat back in the trailer (get her water, open windows, etc), unhook the trailer, drive 100 miles back to Portland, get the passport, and then drive the same 100 miles back to my trailer.  Then have a cold adult beverage (or two).  What a senior moment!  About the only good thing that came out of that was I dropped off the wine I bought at Maryhill, so I didn't have to pay duty on it going into Canada.

Until today, I still had my original tires on the trailer (after almost 9 years!). 

I was doing my usual walk-around before leaving my campsite this morning and noticed the tread coming off one trailer tire.  It looked like a chunk of a hacksaw blade poking out of the tire.  My mind raced around like a panicked chicken for a second until I remembered that I do have a spare.  Found the closest Les Schwab and carefully drove over - luckily, they had the right size tires in stock and set me up with two brand spanking new tires (might as well be proactive- both tires were old).  They were really speedy in (taking my money ;-)  ) getting me on the road again - like a half hour!

Finally, at the rally!

What could be better than three days at N'Kmip Resort (on lake Osoyoos) in the middle of wine country, with a whole bunch of like-minded trailer folk.  Ahhhh . . . time for a glass of wine!


8 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness! Hope all the bad luck is in the rear view mirror!

    So glad you got new tires. 9 year old tires are scary!

    Hope the rally is so much fun that it is all you remember! :)

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    1. I'm having so much fun! Took me forever to set up since so many folks came by to say hi. The weather is perfect!

      I guess I'm still a trailer novice - who knew that tires got old? (well, if you park in the the sunny desert - but cloudy Oregon?) I just looked at the tread and I still had lots of deep tread. An expensive lesson but one which could have been so much worse if the tire had blown on the highway! I count myself lucky anytime I get away with spending only time and money - no one got hurt and I didn't wreck the trailer - it was a good day!

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  2. Well, that sounds like something I would do. Good thing you didn't realize it at the border!!!

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    1. Once I stopped cursing, I was SO glad I remembered only a hundred miles from home! The border would have been much worse!

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  3. Eek! Nine year old tires? You were lucky!

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    1. So I'm hearing!! Well, now I know. I did ask the guy who packed the wheel bearings last year how the tires looked but clearly he didn't know anymore than I did. I'm SO glad I didn't blow a tire on the highway.

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    2. Don't know what part of Canada you are in. I'm an Escapee but didn't know about that rally. Not that I would have gone...I only travel south or east :) BTW I had a great time in AZ except had to head home too soon. Are you going back there?

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    3. With luck, I'll be back in the SW Jan - Apr.

      The rally is put on by the Escape Trailer manufacturers - so unless you own or are planning to own an Escape, you wouldn't have heard about it. We have a couple of SOB's (some other brand) here this year. Great marketing - it's hard to see all the new trailers and not want to upgrade! :-)

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