Ha!  Got ya with the title didn’t I?  🙂  Yes, we had a flat tire on the Silverado 🙁 but no, we didn’t buy a new car because of it.  After we fixed the flat and bought new tires, I took my old high school buddy Mike up to Denver to pick up his new ride.  Here’s how it all went down:

On Thursday morning, Stilla was driving over to our youngest daughter’s house on the southwest side of the Springs to visit and do some laundry.  When she took the exit off I-25 at Cimmarron, the right front tire went down onto the rim.  She called me back at the Coach and I immediately rode over on the Harley.

Before I left the Coach, I called my old high school buddy Mike Harris for help.  Mike owns a local automotive repair shop called Chuck’s Auto.  I figured; 1) he’s nearby, 2) he could bring a real jack so I wouldn’t have to use the dinky crank handle jack that comes with the truck, and 3) I planned on taking the truck to him afterwards anyway to get the tire fixed.  Mike showed up on the scene moments after I did.

I had to break out the owners manual to brush up on how to lower the spare from underneath the rear of the truck while buddy Mike loosened the lug nuts.

I had to empty the back seat to get to the tire changing tools hidden under the seat.  This was no easy task, because as some of you already know, we carry around our Sea Eagle® Inflatable raft in the back seat along with trolling motor, floorboards, seats, life vests, fishing gear, etc.,

We managed to lower the spare out from underneath the bed of the truck…

and then we got the flat tire off the truck on the uneven ground…

and mounted the spare.

After the successful rescue, Stilla drove the truck straight over to Chuck’s Auto.  Mikes son went to work jacking up the truck.

We couldn’t find a reason the tire went flat.  There were no nails this time and no cuts.  You may recall from previous posts that I’ve had at least two other incidents with the rear tires before.  And, since we had to move the truck onto the median while the tire was flat, it rolled off the bead and I couldn’t trust it anymore.  Nothing would be worse than having a flat tire while towing it behind the Coach… I don’t have sensors that tell me when a tire goes down when we’re towing it.  I only have sensors on the Coach tires and wouldn’t know anything was going on with the Silverado unless someone flagged me down.  I just couldn’t trust these Goodyear Wrangler tires anymore with 39,000 miles on the truck and probably another 10 or 15,000 miles being towed.  (The truck odometer doesn’t register towed miles).

Mike got me a smoking deal on 4 new tires.  Thanks Mike!

My youngest daughter picked up Stilla for the rest of the day while I helped get the tires swapped out.

And since Mike was going to Denver later to pick up his new car, the least I could do was give him a ride.  Besides, how better to ensure a quality job on the new tires with balancing and lug nut torque, etc., than transporting the guy responsible 🙂

Here’s my buddy Mike taking delivery of his new Subaru BRZ.

A pretty nice looking car, even if I do say so myself…

We were probably at the dealership for a few hours while they finished detailing the car and Mike did all the paperwork.  Here he is getting the keys to his new ride.

Mike looks pretty good behind the wheel of his new ride.

Mike quickly passed me on our way back to the Springs.  That’s him in the left lane on I-25.

And then so much for the detailing the dealership did… we hit rain on the way back.

Now, I have to go back to pick up my Harley at Mike’s shop.  I had to leave it there overnight.  I’ll bet you Mike stayed up all night reading his new owner’s manual.  🙂

Then, I’m supposed to help shuttle vans from the rental agency to the staging point for tomorrow’s race (run) up Pikes Peak.  I blogged about that HERE.

Check back in for a full recap of our next adventure…