did indeed leave big pine saturday nite as projected
& barreling west on the tamiami trail at 80mph around 3am
was wondering in the total solitude what this my 61st birthday might have in store for me
& how my new 27dollar retread might be doing
& also asking the truck to forgive my current 7000 mile lube lapse
when the wheel lurched out of control & such a racket suddenly arose that i figured old red must have indeed dropped or blown her engine
such perhaps being the power of even stray thought
but meanwhile here we are veering wildly & trying to figure out how to avoid the flimsy guard rails separating both shoulders from their respective gator sloughs below
what a rush
so anyway we get it under control & take a look & a listen
& everythings fine
& theres not even a blowout
& only the slightest body damage
but most of the new tire is indeed missing
so i relax & drink a toast to my inner being for so dramatically renewing my lease on life
& drift off to feed only a few bold mosquitoes
at daybreak i learn all 8 lugnuts had been overtightened beyond my ability to crack
but yikes the tire still holds all 60 pounds of pressure
so i have no choice but to continue at quarter throttle on to crystal river
where i had coincidentally bought the tire
& hope it will make these last couple hundred miles on the steel radials alone
a second lurch & din half an hour later convinced me the tire was finished
but it proved to be just another blowoff
& on the third such occurrence i was again convinced
& even ready to declare it a multihood
but was again surprised to find only a balder & smoother but no flatter a tire
wow this was getting fun
& i could go faster again now too
the next 3 blowoffs surprised me less & less & didnt fool me at all
by number 6 evening was beginning to fall
& i was already approaching within 3 leagues of bp ground zero itself
aka laorospo or downtown toon town as you may remember
but i turned west on a crazy shortcut thru green swamp
where the tire finally did blow & most dramatically of all
the first respondent to my white hanky of so to say distress was a fair & quite buxom blonde damsel in work boots
i kid you not
this really happened to me yesterday
where i must leave you in suspense until my next shot at this computer
they are very liberal here in crystal river
you can at least reach a good stopping point for your episode
& there will eventually be a couple of real tripoint visits in this story
i promise
later