Road Trip Tips

 

Tips for taking a Road Trip

 

So recently my daughter and I set off to visit family in the south.  While I’m not a former girl scout, I try to be organized and prepared, so I checked the tires, oil & transmission fluid and topped off the windshield washer fluid.  Feeling well prepared we drove to North Carolina and visited family all over the state.  We then drove to South Carolina and hit the beach.   We put a lot of miles on the car, but the dashboard messages indicated all was good.  That’s until we accidentally drove over a nail on I77 about a mile from West Virginia and BLEW the tire! 

 

Well, this should have been handled with minor inconvenience.  But when we jacked the car up and removed the “Donut” I discovered it was out of air!  (Guess I wasn’t “prepared”). 

 

But since it was a puncture and my daughter (former GM Engineer) was familiar with “plugging” a tire, it would have been easy to fix =- EXCEPT I didn’t have a plug kit (inexpensive but important), nor did I have a tire inflator (also not expensive but essential).  Fortunately, I did add Roadside Assistance to my car insurance and a very nice tow truck driver towed us to the repair garage (where the nice guy also inflated my “donut”).   

So, the moral of this story is

Check ALL the tires (even the spare/donut)

Carry a plug patch kit

Carry a portable Tire inflator

Be prepared & be on your way to a great Road Trip!