Another day of driving, and we're finally home. Temp leaving Little Rock was 90 degrees, the hottest we'd seen almost the whole trip, though of course heading back into Texas saw the temp rise further, hitting at least 100 when I last checked.
Driving this stretch of road is always an adventure, and was a bit more danger filled than usual, the number of trucks on this stretch is far greater than other legs of our journey, and consequently the amount of debris from blown tires and such sometimes presents challenges. There were at least four trucks not too far ahead of us (a mile or less) that had tires come apart on them, we were able to swerve (no easy feat hauling the camper) around them, but north of Waco, Texas we saw a truck two vehicles ahead of us blow a tire, and there was nowhere to go but straight on through.
The vehicle ahead of us had been following the truck a bit too close, and when the tire went the entire outer tread separated and flew onto the highway, clipping the front end of the car as it swerved to another lane. As we slowed, the entire length of the tread lay across our lane, unable to dodge it I drove straight across, hearing it tumble and bump under the car and trailer. A quick exit off the highway revealed no damage, so we continued on.
More construction delayed us just 10 miles from home, all highway lanes being shut down, and traffic diverted onto the frontage road. After sitting for about 20 minutes, wishing I'd hit the rest area 10 miles back, the highway opened up again, leaving us still stuck on the frontage road. A mass exodus of cars from the frontage road proceeded, and despite hauling the camper, I found a level patch and, as is quite common around here, made my own entrance ramp to the highway, and we were back home within minutes, another adventure completed.