October 30, 2024
One of the best things about traveling and fishing across the south is that you never know what or who you might encounter. Sometimes you come across some nice folks who like to strike up conversation with you at the gas pump. Then there are times when you just want to get back to the truck and get the heck out of there! But either way, it’s all a part of the so called “road time” that all anglers must endure.
While most of my experiences have been positive, there’ve been a few that I would rather forget. The worst trip I ever had to make was an 18-hour drive (one way) to Lake Okeechobee in south Florida. The drive alone was brutal, and this is where I developed a major respect for the guys that fish for a living.
While traveling, I’m not one to stop and spend the night at a hotel especially pulling a bass boat, as you can quickly become a target for theft. So far, I’ve been very fortunate to have never been taken advantage of. But I feel safer pulling into a rest stop occasionally for a quick power nap.
Traveling all hours of the night, I seem to do well driving after dark. All I need are sunflower seeds, a large sweet tea, and I’m good to go! But there was one occasion where I guess you could say I hit a bump in the road.
While traveling back from Lake Chickamauga in Tennessee, I had a blow out on my boat trailer. This has happened to me several times, so often that I could probably try out as a tire changer on a NASCAR pit crew.
But on this particular night, my pit crew would have fired me! Let me set the stage for my debacle. It was in the wee hours of the morning, around 1:00 AM, as I was coming through Birmingham, Alabama, when I felt a major vibration in the steering wheel. This usually means one thing…a blown tire on my boat trailer. So, I pulled over in an area where there was some major highway construction taking place. Keep in mind that it is very dark and the only light I had was a weak cell phone and the headlights of passing cars.
After emptying the entire back end of my truck so I could get to the floor jack and my pneumatic wrench, I slowly started the process of changing the flat tire. Now understand, there’s a right and a wrong way to put lug nuts on a wheel. Each lug nut has a beveled edge that is supposed to go on the wheel one way.
Turns out, this is very important but when you’re changing a tire in the dark, some things you just don’t pay attention to. I was just wanting to get this tire changed and back on the road as quickly as possible.
Getting the job done in record time that any man would be proud of, I was back on the road and headed for Louisiana. One hour later I needed gas, so I pulled into a Love’s Truck Stop (which are great) and hopped out of my truck and began to fill the tank. As the gas was flowing, I decided to do make sure the tarp on my boat was secure.
Well, was I in for a shocking surprise! As I got to the trailer tire that I had changed out, I was amazed to see that the entire wheel was completely gone! OMG…where is the tire I replaced about an hour ago? It was obviously somewhere on the side of the road just west of Birmingham, Alabama!
Still in shock, I pulled into the garage area of the Love’s Truck Stop and asked the mechanic if he had a trailer tire that would fit my boat trailer. Of course, he did not, but did know a local tire dealer who would. So, he made the call and the tire dealer sent me his store address that was luckily only ten minutes away, and told me to meet him there.
Being 2:00 in the morning, I really hated to wake someone to get me a tire so I would not have to limp all the way back to Louisiana on just three tires. But this guy was not just a tire dealer, but the member of a local band that had just got in from a gig.
He was so gracious and told me that one of two things probably happened for me to lose the wheel off my boat trailer. I either put the lug nuts on backwards, or I just didn’t get them tight enough. Of course, I blamed it on the dark and the fact that I couldn’t see what I was doing.
Either way, this gentleman saved the day, and I pulled into my driveway 8 hours later. Again, this is all a part of the adventure of traveling and fishing some of the best lakes in the country. While things can get interesting quickly, you just have to stay positive and enjoy the drive…….most of the time!
Contact Steve at sgraf26@yahoo.com
