Early Retirement

We don't care much for this urban sprawl which we hear so much about these days. Those who don't know what it is probably haven't left the confines of an urbanly sprawled area long enough to know the difference. While we're busy not liking sprawl we might as well admit to not liking those big box nationwide one-in-every-town chain stores which snuff the life out of friendly little local independent businesses.

Our travels allow us to both de-sprawl and de-chainstore ourselves in one fluid motion. Given sufficient motion fluid (gasoline) we have little trouble escaping the gravity of those harsh realities. Of course, these forays into the hinterlands are a bit wearing where the rubber meets the road. We thought it prudent to re-tire before our tires get tired and retire us.

At a mere 12,000 miles we don't expect to be riding on slicks, but it's never too soon to prepare. Accordingly, we sought the products and services of a non-chain store many miles from the high priced spread. This put us on the doorstep of the Amos Tire Center just outside of Ridgeville, SC. Ford specifies high traction tires rated at a maximum speed which we'd rather not reveal in case the Highway Patrol is reading us. The maximum speed rating of the Amos offerings would probably keep us under the posted limits....even in Ridgeville. When asked about tire rotation, we were informed that they continue rotating until you bring the car to a stop. Time and money was saved on that. We were assured that we had plenty of residual tread. Some mechanics use sophisticated treadwear gauges, but Amos says that we should use the logo on his sign as a guide. Not until our tires get that worn or out of round should we be concerned.

We rolled off the lot with no small sense of pride in having foxed those chain stores yet again.