I wish I could tell you this has been an uneventful trip out West, but unfortunately it's been very eventful.
Wednesday afternoon we had a flat tire on the big double-stack trailer. I put the spare on there, but these tires aren't all that common. They're not available at your average tire store; they're an unusual size and load range. We ended up having to continue on three hours to get to the nearest place that might have a tire we could buy. What are the chances of having another blowout when you're driving without a spare? I'll tell you: 100 percent.
The second incident wasn't a flat, but the tread separated. Luckily, we were stopped at a truck stop when the second one happened. We were able to make some phone calls to a place that had some of the tires we needed, and they drove them to us by truck. We were able to get them fixed there. The interesting thing was that when the second tread separated on it, it mangled the fender to the point that the new tire wouldn't fit on. You all should've seen me this morning with a hacksaw and a big hammer straightening that thing out, it was a mess.
All in all, it only caused a couple of hours delay. We're back on the road now and almost to California. When we get there, we'll be filming something special. As I teased last week, the Jones Clan is going to have a new video series on Bassmaster.com. It's called "Keeping up with the Joneses," and features my whole family as we travel around the country to each Elite Series event. It'll show some fishing stuff, some preparation, and let you all in on what it's like to be a traveling family. I know we're really excited. We're all going to spend time in front of the camera as well as behind it, so I invite you all to keep up with the Joneses!