466 miles via I-95 and a bunch of local roads in Brunswick GA. Auto miles: 479 (the extra miles driven in Brunswick GA looking for a tire – see below). Cumulative route miles: 659. Cumulative auto miles: 684.
This was supposed to be an easy hop – just a straight shot up I-95. But sometimes a simple hop becomes an adventure. And Hop 2 was certainly an adventure.
The trip was uneventful through Florida. We stopped for gas and coffee at a Loves Travel Center north of Jacksonville. But shortly after we entered GA it seemed that the road started getting rough. At first I thought nothing of it. But it got worse. The steering started to pull to the right and the rough ride soon became a thumping. I thought I was getting a flat tire. But when I stopped to check I found that the pressure in the front right tire was just fine. But something was clearly wrong. My theory: the tread was separating and the tire was going “out of round.” That is a precursor to a blowout. So, with some urgency, we exited I-95 in Brunswick GA and started looking for a tire shop. On a Sunday. Yeah. Good luck.
We traveled to 3 places without success, but each time getting a suggestion for a place to try next. We eventually found a tire shop – Mavis – that was both open and had the right size tire in stock. But they couldn’t fix it until Monday. Next try, Walmart. Same story. At that point I cancelled our hotel reservation, thinking that we most likely would have to stay in Brunswick overnight. But we persisted. We found a Firestore tire center that could look at it if we could just wait a bit. Marlene put on her best “damsel in distress” act and they got the car in pretty quickly. The technician took a photo of the tire and showed it to us – it was, indeed, bulging and on the verge of a blowout. They installed a new tire and we continued on our way. It was a 3-hour delay but not a full day delay.
I tried to recover the reservation at Baymont by Wyndham in Florence, without success. So we just traveled there hoping they would have a room available. They did, but it was on the second floor, no elevator. Our bags are very heavy and it had been a long, stressful day. I asked for a first floor room. The clerk found one but seemed uncertain. He gave me a keycard and said “take a look.” I did. It was far from ideal but I figured it was just for one night. So we took the room, moved our luggage in and, I thought, would settle in for the night. But no. After Marlene had a chance to fully absorb how awful the room was – especially the disgusting bathroom – we decided we couldn’t stay there. So we put everything back in the car, I returned the keycard and got a refund, then drove next door to the Super 8 by Wyndham.
Which was very nice. And for just a couple dollars more.
Same hotel chain (with different brands), same location (literally next door to each other), almost identical pricing, but vastly different quality. Go figure
We unpacked for a second time then went to the Cracker Barrel on the other side of the Baymont and had a nice dinner.
