Nov 30 - On Coincidence

We've had a couple of weird coincidences occur around here recently. Going back a couple weeks...  Let me set the scene. We had just gotten settled at Camp Solitude in the desert near Quartzsite. Coincidentally, I had just finished reading Brian Gore's first novel "A Matter of Honor" on my Kindle. On the afternoon of the day in question I was on the internet... on Amazon, and was writing a short review of his book. While on the "write your review here" page, in the middle of composing the review, Dar spotted a truck and fifth wheel rolling into our corner of the desert and announced "incoming" (a habit we've gotten into, as watching people park big rigs is better entertainment than almost anything on commercial TV). So I glance out and see the rig slowly moving in... and said "Hey, I know that guy! That's Brian Gore... the guy who wrote the book I just finished... the review I'm writing right now!". Literally, as I'm writing about his book, he, the author, shows up and parks just a couple hundred yards away. How's that for a coincidence.

And then it happened again yesterday. Let me set the scene on this one. If you've read my recent posts you'll probably be aware that I suspected a couple of sensors on my PressurePro tire pressure monitoring system were causing a slow leak in the tires they were mated with. Because the problem seemed to be getting worse in recent weeks, I resolved to reach out to my PP dealer and see if they could remedy the situation once I got here to North Ranch... where we'd be for a week and I could actually get mail if they needed to send new sensors or parts or whatever.

So yesterday, our first full day here, I got on the computer and went to the website of my PP dealer... Pat and Mike McFall to get their phone number. (OK, pay attention, here's where the coincidence appears...) After punching the phone number into my phone, I happened to glance at their blog... and see that they live right here in North Ranch. During the winter this RV community is their home. They have a lot and house and a shop and their PP business, the whole shebang, right here just a few short blocks from where we're parked.

Call it Karma, or clean living, or luck, or whatever... it's wonderfully weird when things like this happen. The world, for a least a little while, seems smaller and more friendly.

So, the short version of the rest of the story is that Pat and Mike invited me over, solved my problem (those two sensors had slightly damaged rubber gaskets and the fix was to simply replace the gasket), and we visited for an hour or more. Two of the nicest people you'd want to have for your PP dealers... or even just as friends.

Despite my self-restriction on doing commercial endorsements for RV related products... let's just call this a little "plug". Comparing the almost 4 years we traveled without a tire pressure monitoring system, to the year or so we've traveled since... well, there's no comparison. There's a huge increase in peace of mind that comes from knowing what your tire pressures are while driving down the road. And that we'll be alerted to a low tire or a blow-out... especially on the car we're towing "four wheels down". I've personally talked with two people who have had a blow out with a tire on their towed car... didn't realize it... and kept driving. The result is generally thousands of dollars in damage to the car and a possible fire from continuing to drive at highways speeds with a flat tire. I consider a tire pressure monitoring system "peace of mind" insurance.