Bless their little pea picking hearts. Mike and Stephen helped me change the tire. I backed the inside wheel up on a wooden ramp which allowed us to get the outer wheel off. Stephen did most of the grunt work, removing the lug nuts. Then he a Mike managed to get the wheel off and on the ground. I was very interested and concerned as to what had happened to the tire.
We rolled it over and over, looking for the problem, but couldn't see anything obvious. I touched the valve stem and found it was very soft. It was not as stiff as most valve stems typically are. I carry a little air compressor, so I tried airing up the tire. Sure enough, the valve stem leaked when it was pushed to the side a bit. Apparently the valve stem extender (used to make dual wheel valve stems accessible) had over stressed the stem and it finally gave up. That was good news. That means I'm not shopping for new expensive tires. I'll just run it by a tire shop and get a new stem put in. Maybe I need to keep a spare stem just in case, because all four rear wheels have those extenders.
I don't know if I could have managed the tire change without the boys. That darned thing is heavy and I just don't have the arm strength anymore. However, as we worked on it, I was thinking about what it would take for me to do it by myself. Of course, that means I'll have to follow my checklist and make sure I get all my "stuff" packed before we leave home.
