We were riding high from our time in Durango as we drove to Page, Arizona. Don’t worry; I know we were coming from Colorado, but it’s not what you think. We were riding high because we loved Durango so much, because we were having such a great time, because we are connecting so deeply as a family, and because we were loving our time in this beautiful part of the country. All was good as we were driving along and then “boom!”
Several other Airstreamers we met on our travels warned us that we needed to really watch our tires. We had the Goodyear Marathons tires that came with the trailer. They, apparently, had a reputation for blowouts. A blowout is what happens to a trailer tire when it goes bad. Nothing boring like on an automobile where you get a slow leak or walk out in the morning to see a flat. Nope, trailer tires blow up when you are driving at highway speed and tear stuff up. Our tires looked brand new since the Silver Baguette had not been used much by her previous owners. So, I figured we were good.
Before we left Durango, I checked the air pressure in all of our tires. I had started doing this after getting the warnings from those other travelers. The pressure looked good, so I was pretty surprised when I heard the boom driving down a two-lane highway in the middle of nowhere in the Navajo Nation of Arizona. I “hoped” maybe we hit something. However, II knew when I got out of the Airstream, I would see a shredded tire and maybe more damage. Sure enough, we pulled over, got out, and saw a mangled tire with steel belts hanging out all over the place. This should be fun…
Luckily, I had thought through what I would do if I had a flat tire somewhere out in the sticks, so we had everything we needed. I drove the good tire up on some leveling blocks to get the bad tire off of the ground. We brought along a lug wrench and a pump, so I was able to get the spare tire on the Airstream and up to the correct pressure. I was now worried what would happen if we lost tire number two on our way back to civilization. We’d cross that bridge if we needed to.
We made it to Page, Arizona where we stopped by a tire shop and got a new spare just in case. We had them order four new Goodyear Endurance tires, which supposedly are beefier and much better than the old Marathons. I guess we will see! I am also going to order a tire pressure monitoring system to install so that I can obsess over tire pressure as much as I do battery voltages from this point forward.
After getting the spare, we made our way to Lone Rock Beach in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, where we were going to camp for the next couple days. We drove down a dirt road that led us out to a beach where we could camp right along the shores of Lake Powell. We pulled in right as the sun was setting which lit the surrounding mountains up with brilliant colors. Whatever stress we had felt earlier in the day quickly melted away.
Lone Rock Beach turned out to be one of our favorite camping spots to date. It was absolutely beautiful and I got to go running on the beach every morning – in a desert! We met several new friends on the beach who were either out for a long vacation or out for a year or more like us. We met a family with kids parked right next to us who were traveling for a year but were taking a route almost the opposite of what we were. That is a bummer because we would love to hang out with them again.
Page is also home to several fun hikes we decide to take advantage of. We hiked an area known as the “New Wave” where there are colorful sandstone formations in the shapes of waves. We revisited Horseshoe Bend, which is a beautiful 180 degree plus turn in the Colorado River that you can view from the canyon rim 1,000 feet above. Jamie and I remarked how much that spot had changed since we had last been there – from the paid parking lot to the newly installed guardrails at the edge of the canyon. It used to be wild! It is still a beautiful place though.
I am really grateful that our tire blowout was as uneventful as it was. It could have been a whole lot worse. I am glad that I now have four new tires on the Airstream which, hopefully, greatly reduces the risk of another incident like that. We are having a ton of fun on this trip making memories and seeing all sorts of wonderful things. But, that all seems trivial compared to us all staying safe and healthy.
