An adventure on the way home.

We left Vienna around 9 am.  Early for us really.  I had no campsite booked for the night and thought we would just wing it.  I passed Graz where I bought us some subway sandwiches for lunch, then got back out on the highway.  I drove for a good 2 hours while George lay asleep in the back.  The mattress is good to have because it's so much more comfortable for him.  

Then disaster struck.  I was listening to an audio book when we drove through some construction.  I noticed nothing amiss, but when we got out of it, my screen started to flash red at me.  I looked down and the right front tire pressure was dropping rapidly.  

Thankfully I was near an exit so I took it.  The nearest garage though was 3.5 km away and being Sunday....it was closed.

I pulled over, put on the hazard lights, had George put on the only yellow vest in the car (I need to put another in), and set up the triangle down the road. Now to search for help.  I managed to find a garage open 30km away so I called.  1/2 an hour for a pick up.  Tesla roadside service was in venice-almost 2 hours from us. Pass.  

The tow truck came and loaded us up.  

He took us to a tire shop that just happened to be open.  In an hour they changed out my 2 front tires for 2 used tires and we were back to normal.  

Now here is the funny part.  Dad was a mechanic and I understand a thing or two about tires, etc. I was talking to the shop owner, and told him to make sure these "new tires" were balanced.  He was surprised I understood about that so put the tires on the machine.  I also told him I knew I was getting taken for a ride on the cost of the new tires but considering it was Sunday and we were in the middle of nowhere, that I was actually getting by lucky.  He simply said "Yes".  So €450 later we were on our way again. 

We headed towards Venice and stopped for the night at Camping Rialto (over crowded, small camp sites-not recommended).  Before settling in, we picked up some authentic Italian sushi and watched the Tudors on Netflix.  When dinner was over, we put in the window screens, shifted the non sleeping stuff to the front, and crawled in the back for a good nights sleep.  

A few notes, use regular pillows.  So what if they take up space, they are much more comfortable than the small travel pillows I bought along for this time.  The 2 old army ponchos that I have kept for well over 30 years came in handy.  George couldn't steal the covers from me because I was cocooned up.  I should probably look ahead and book campgrounds before hand. And there is no telling when road debris is going to ruin your day.  For the record, I had no choice but to replace the tires.  The hole in the one was probably 1/2 inch in diameter.  No ready plug is going to fix that.  Ah well.  He got at least one new tire.  I think I put those on this last winter.  

And through it all, I kept laughing.  It was just another adventure in the life of Roxanne and George.  And who can complain about waking up to this view?