More New Tires

We have become regular contributors to Discount Tire's bottom line. After yesterday's blowout, we called around trying to locate two tires to match the original Firestones that came with our Excel. They turned out to be hard to find and expensive, so we started thinking about the possibility of replacing all four tires. Although we bought Venture in July 2007, the trailer was actually manufactured in November 2005, and the tires were manufactured before that. Opinions differ, but many advise replacing RV tires once they are four to six years old, even if the tread depth is fine.

We decided we'd err on the safe side and buy four new tires, keeping the best of our original tires for a spare. We found a Discount Tire store along I-35 and conveniently were able to eat lunch while waiting for them to install the tires. We were on our way in just over an hour with four new Yokohama tires.

We were delighted to see wildflowers in bloom all along the highway today (thanks to Lady Bird Johnson), including lots of Texas bluebonnets.

We are staying tonight at Berry Springs RV Park in Georgetown, just north of Austin. We stayed here last November on our way south. It's a good overnight, near the interstate, and it offers an Escapee discount. After supper we headed out for our walk and decided that rather than circle the park, we'd walk along the road. We immediately noticed a sign for a hike and bike path.

Our exploration took us to a new-looking cement path, and we immediately noticed that the wet cement showed signs of critters leaving their paw/foot prints as they crossed or meandered along the path. Soon we were seeing at least one set of prints every 10-12 feet, and the variety was impressive.

The path led through Berry Springs Park and Preserve, which we hope to explore more on future visits.

I managed to get some Rummikub points on Ken, but he's still far ahead. When he gets to 1,000, I think we'll wipe the slate clean and start over!