Men Plan, God Laughs...

Or so the saying goes.  From Ellenton, we took SR 62 to 17 to 60, and just before Yeehaw Junction, on a stretch of road with nothing but Florida wilderness, we had another blow out, this time on the front driver's side of the unit.  Thankfully, Bob was able to find a place to pull off the road.  In the first photo, taken from inside the truck into the side mirror, that unrecognizable shape is Bob under the trailer.  (By the way, you should be able to enlarge any photo in the blog by right double clicking on it)  He also had a problem with the jack, but after much effort, he managed to get the spare on, and we continued on our way to Cocoa along 441, 192 and US 1.  What should have been about a 3 hour trip took us over 5 which pretty much killed any other plans for Monday.

Obviously something is not right for us to have so many blow outs.  So, on Tuesday, after talking with other RVers in Bob's chat room who have had similar misfortune with the tires made in China, Bob attempted to find heavier grade ones, preferably USA made, and also increased the air pressure in the shock air bags on the truck so that they would take some more weight off the trailer load.  That took us most of the morning and part of the afternoon.  At 3, Bob's sister, Gwen, and her friend, Ellen, joined us at the campground.

Wednesday was already ear marked to have Charlie Dog get his annual shots and some other needed care at the vet that Gwen works for in Palm Bay, about 45 minutes from our camp.   Our vet had recently retired, and we hadn't found a new one we felt comfortable with.  Gwen has always spoken highly of Susan, who has her community animal hospital on part of her farmland where she and her husband, Dave, are raising emus and ostriches.  After dropping off Charlie, we rode around the area sightseeing and doing some shopping.  Bob had gotten badly sunburn to the point of blistering when we were at Ft DeSoto, so he didn't want to go near the beach, and I have a bad cold and thought it would be best to avoid swimming for a few days.  We were able to pick Charlie Dog up at 2.  Poor guy had to have 5 teeth pulled, 3 non cancerous growths cut off, drops in his ears, and his shots.  Needless to say, he wasn't feeling like a  happy camper.

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing "housekeeping" stuff...laundry and packing.  With that, our 3 day stay here is just about over.  Tomorrow we will be heading to Calabash, NC, with our fingers crossed.

Pictures from our campsite at  Manatee Hammock Campground with Indian River at one end of the park and the grounds behind us

A shot of the Vertical Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral across the Indian River from the end of the per at the campground

More scenes from the pier.  It was very windy, so we didn't think it would be good to try fishing.

Gwen and Ellen, both of whom worked on the launches for over 20 years at the Cape.

 The emus and the ostriches, aka The Big Birds

Indian River along US1