The Wheels on the Car Go Round& Round

until they don’t. This is the story of the merit badge we earned on the Dempster. I will say I really thought Roy having two spares for the Jeep was overkill. It wasn’t. The second day up the Dempster started with a little bit of drizzle not bad at all. We made it passed the Artic circle even got a picture. Then we had just mentioned that the tire monitoring system on the RV had not beeped. Side note this system had been beeping over nothing. All of a sudden we hear a beep and see on the dash that our right rear tire of the jeep is going flat. You know how you just get a feeling, I knew the minute I saw the rock standing up and we hit the it that one of our tires were going to go flat. I hate it when I’m right :).

Roy was able to roll to a stop and move over to the side of the road. So we are sitting there looking at each other cringing about having to change the tire. We bought a hoist we could put in the hitch of the car to get the tire off the roof. Small problem was we would have to drop the trailer, and set everything up jack up the car and change tire. I was willing to do it until Roy’s mind found a second choice. Flag some one down, head back to Eagle have them come change the tire. (remember this road is the less traveled road). My response was OK, I think we should give it until noon, (it was 10am) if no one comes we will change it ourselves.

Good news here we got extremely lucky within 10 minutes two cars were headed our way. The first vehicle had a man and woman and two kids very full car. They were willing to make room I was ok with that. Right behind them was a trucker camper with two people in it, the first car said they would wait and see if the couple could make room. I go check and they did, so on the way to Eagle Plains we head. Thirty one miles back to the restaurant and gas station did not take too long. One thought in my mind was these people could be ax murders (side note they weren’t). The other thought was no one will be looking for us for at least a week as we had no cell service.

Now, my thought was no way to contact Roy if they can’t come and change tire. Of course that was not the case, people will do anything for a price. (Price was cheaper then I thought it would be). The owner only had to questions for me; 1. do you have a spare 2. why don’t you change it. Answers to both was yes and my hubby has COPD and I have MS. I just answered the guy said no problem, inside I’m jumping up and down. So, $200 Canadian lighter Gerald and I were on our way. Funny thought it took half the time to travel to where we were because someone knows the area. I did learn where the restaurant gets their water, a creek down the road.

The most annoying part for Gerald was the mosquitoes he had to deal with, he did get tipped for this. I tried to keep the mosquitoes away I don’t think it helped. We were on our way from flat tire to new tire in 2 1/2 hours. Fast forward to Inuvik, Roy needs a new tire to replace the one that is flat. Once the tire came off we saw that the rock did a number where it could not be fixed.

Timing and plans are everything. I say this because we were able to extend our camping at Happy Valley. Original plan was to spend 2 days with the trailer in Tuk, only needed a few hours to explore the city. So our accommodations secured lets go find a tire. Not so easy as it would be in a city, but that is all part of the road less traveled. We were able to get the tire flown into Inuvik this was a good thing.

Tire $350 Flight $300 Peace of Mind Priceless. So now with a brand new tire on the car spare tire back on roof, bad tire on top of roof too. The best part of the whole tire excursion was the comments of how prepared those people are 2 tires on top of the car. The look on the faces after we tell them that nope already had to replace tire, taking the flat back for a refund.

Sorry for the delay in posting I just wanted to wait until new shoes for the jeep were ready to be put on, we are getting these this week.