The World’s Largest Tire

Phew, I’m finally caught up with my Georgia posts! We’ve been hanging out here at Sleepy Bear’s RV Park in Lumberton, NC since Monday. I have to admit I’m disappointed in the RV park. Had I known it was so small and fairly run down, we would have stayed only two nights. But here we are and we’re making the best of it. We went from air conditioning to heat (only at night). This stop was good because when we stay at places where there’s a lot to do, we’re so busy doing them that I don’t have time for much else. Especially with three kids to care for.

Monday was mainly rolling into our site, getting everything hooked up and settling in for the night. Tuesday greeted us with beautiful sunny skies. I needed to take care of a few things, one of them being ingredients for what my daughter has dubbed Taco Tuesday! So we headed to Wal-Mart to stock up on a few things. Then I was determined to find the post office. The last one I found near Blythe Island was closed by the time I found it. One of the things I have the girls doing is writing a postcard from each state we’re in. This is part of their handwriting chores (in disguise). Then they send them home to dad. But I was in desperate need of some postcard stamps. So we located the nearest post office, I got the stamps and popped them in the mail.

The other great thing about this exercise is it will be a great memory for them. They can keep their dad updated and put a smile on his face. Then, they can keep them and see all the wonderful places they’ve been. I also found this really cool app called Postagram. This nifty little app allows you to make a postcard with your own photos and have it mailed anywhere in the world! How cool is that? I briefly checked it out and it costs about $1 per postcard. No need to get stamps or find a post office. They do it all for you. I will be using that service from time to time but I still want the girls to manually prepare them when we can. Another disguised handwriting exercise is their journal called, “Let’s Go See: All 50! Visiting the 50 States Journal“. It’s part of the “Write it Down!” series by Journals Unlimited, Inc. They have a ton of other cool journals. The neat thing is the prompts that help you tell the story.

Anyway, with all our errands out of the way, we went home and put the groceries away. I got caught up on some blogging and administrative stuff and then started dinner. A typical day which ended with showers and putting the kids to bed. This morning we woke up to gray, cloudy skies. We hung around home for a bit and then I dragged everyone out to see the ultimate in entertainment, the world’s largest tire! Now this tire, it was pretty elusive. we drove half an hour in one direction with no luck. The directions I downloaded were way, way off.

So I googled one more time and it was in the complete other direction! Really??!! RV lost yet? Why yes, we are. Directions do not like me and I do not like directions, I’m a free bird. So we headed back the other way and finally found our big ole hunk of rubber. It wasn’t as impressive as we thought it was going to be but hey, it did earn the “World’s Largest Tire” by the World Record Academy. I’m not sure how official that one is but it won none the less. So here you have it folks, the world’s largest tire…..

I guess it’s as good as it gets for this sleepy little town. They claim you can put a bed inside of it and sleep, not like I wanna do that or anything!! So if you’re interested in having your own “world’s largest tire” you should probably know that it will set you back about $55K! So my daughter asked, “So what does the world’s largest tire go on, the world’s largest truck?”. Very good observation my dear daughter. And so we looked it up. And yes, the tire is actually made to go onto the world’s largest dump truck. A Caterpillar 797 dump truck to be exact. And that mammoth beast looks like this.

It is so big that it has its own built-in ladder. Look at the back-end of it. It’s capable of holding 120 Ford Excursions in the dump bed! That is just crazy folks, crazy. And this yellow monster will cost you $3.4 million. No wonder the tires are so massive. Now this sucker can’t just be driven down the street to your local dealer. So when one is ordered, it comes in twelve different pieces and must be assembled. The fuel tank holds 1,800 gallons. I think I’m more fascinated with the truck than I am in the silly tire.

Oh yeah, the tire, let’s get back to the tire. The tire is made by Michelin and here are the spec’s:

Tire Size: 59/80R/63
Height: 14 ft
Width: 5.5 ft
Weight: 10, 400lbs

So there you have it folks. And don’t forget, you heard it here first! I know, I know, get a good laugh. So we’re heading on out of here tomorrow. The destination is Williamsburg RV & Camping Resort.  There will be a special guest arrival by none other than DADDY on Friday night. The kids are very excited :-). Alissa said that she will be having a crab leg eating competition with him at Captain George’s Seafood Restaurant.

{HUGS} from the crew!

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Current Location = Sleepy Bear’s RV Park, 465 Kenric Road Lumberton, NC 28360

Cost = $97.20/ for 3 nights. This includes internet and full hook-ups (50amp).

My Observations = This would be an okay stop if you needed hook-ups and only planned on staying one night. But if I didn’t need hook-ups, I wouldn’t be staying here, I’d be at the local Wal-Mart for the night. When I do stops with the kids for more than one night, I want to have some amenities and a safe location. This campground needs help. The big plus is that the owners are very friendly and helpful. However, that doesn’t make up for the fact that the playground has some glaring safety issues (a ‘pool slide’ being used as a regular one and propped up with cinder blocks), there are several very old and dilapidated RV’s for sale, making a huge eye sore. It’s a tired RV park that needs some money invested into it. I believe the owners are trying but if they don’t want to invest the money, they need to hand it over to someone who does. It’s also VERY close to I-95. You can see tractor trailers going by as you play putt-putt golf. Some of the amenities include:

• laundry facilities
• bath houses
• pool
• playground (but not safe)

Don’t bother, keep driving.