I had no concrete plan and I was playing by the ears by now. I've been all over the Midwest last year and I was not going back to where I've been. Which meant I'm not going south to Columbus, or east to Cleveland. But I haven't been to Ohio's coastline between Toledo and Cleveland. So, I decided to sweep through the lakeshore towards Cleveland and then head to New Jersey from there.
There wasn't much on my plate this morning other than checking out the Toledo downtown and another place or two of interest. I first drove to the Museum of Art, walked around a bit, took a picture and then went to the downtown along Maumee River. I parked the car on Summit Street and walked Monroe Street toward the river. I ended up at Cornings headquarters and walked its trails by the river and circle out back to Summit Street. I then walked along Summit for a while and then was back to the car. And that was that for Toledo, a middling city in Ohio. 2 years ago, I didn't know anything about Ohio. Now I can say I've been to all the cities -- Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton, Cincinnati, Akron and now Toledo -- in Ohio.
Shortly after leaving Toledo, the tire pressure warning went off. I stopped to check, and it was visibly flat. I wasn't having a good luck with tires; it was the 3rd tire leak in 2 years. I stopped to pump the air at a Speedway station in Northwood. It took my $2.50 but didn't pump. They only gave me back $2. I drove across the road to another station, and the casher told me I could get a free air at a tire store on Navarre Ave. I ended up spending a good hour chasing air in Northwood, and then was finally off to Sandusky.
On the way was a series of beach towns. Port Clinton in particular appeared to be a working class resort town. I grabbed a sandwich from Wendy's and drove across the street to the waterfront for lunch. I walked to the lighthouse afterwards and then I was back on the road after 2PM. I stopped briefly at the beach to take a few photos. I then made an attempt to get to Catawba Island State Park, but I turned around. I no longer remember why; perhaps I was running out of fuel or I had to pay to get into the park.
By the time I got to Elyria in the suburb of Cleveland, the tire was getting flat again. I had to pull over for more air. But it was going to keep losing air, and I had to get it fixed. I first stopped at Firestone, but they were closing in an hour and they couldn't look at it. I then stopped at a few more tire stores, but none could deal with Tesla. Good thing they couldn't: it wasn't fixable anyway. When I got to Walmart, they told me that the tire cracked and needs to be replaced. They didn't the right tire, naturally, and I was stuck. It was getting late, and tire stores were closing. I called around and Mr. Tire in Northridge finally said they could get a pair the next day, so I placed order. I then drove to Mr. Tire store, pulled into the back of the building and slept there.
The next day, it was going to be several hours before the tires arrive. I wasn't comfortable with Cooper Tires, a brand that I'm not familiar with, either. So I placed more calls in the morning and found that Firestone, the first store that I stopped at, had tires available. I cancelled my order -- Mr. Tire folks not only let me out of the deal, but they also put more air on my gimpy tire so that I can limp along to the next store -- and drove to Firestone. They happened to have sale on QuietTrack, the top-rated tire for Tesla: if I buy 3 tires, they would get me the fourth for free. I only needed 2, but I figured I still break even with set of 4, given the 80k mile warranty on them. Eagle Touring that I had on my car had only 40k mile warranty and I used up half of it already. One was leaking and another was bold, on top of it.
When it was all said and done, it was 1PM and I was out of $1,000. But I was finally on my way to New Jersey. And it felt good not to be limping anymore.
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