August 20

August 20th (sunny)
This morning we were awoken again at 4:30 am by our Italian neighbours. Went back to sleep until 7 am. Georg got up and was definitely on edge worrying about the tires. At about 8 am he went and checked with the mechanic next door and fortunately he spoke English. Georg explained the problem and the mechanic told us that he would have two new tires ready by noon. Georg and I killed the time by breaking down the car and washing Susi. Once one of the tires was fixed, Georg replaced it with the flat and then we drove the vehicle to the garage for them to attempt the rest of the tire repairs.
Unfortunately, the problem with the over-tightened tire lugs was not able to be resolved. They were on way too tight. However, the spare tire was replaced with a new one and after paying for the exorbitant camping fees, we headed towards Plzen (Pilsen). About halfway there, we heard the sound of plastic rolling and tumbling on the highway. Right away, we both thought that one of the hubcaps had fallen off. We were right.
We had no problems finding the camping site in Plzen, but when Georg went to hook up the electrical, he realized that he had left the adaptor extension hooked on to the transformer back in Prague. He was beside himself. We broke camp, drove into town to a large shopping centre where he found bits and pieces required to make the adaptor, plus one new hubcap. On the way there, we also saw a tire repair shop so on our way back, we stopped in and had them switch the spare tire to the rear and loosen the other lug nuts on the other three tires. We were absolutely amazed at the tenacity of the young man that did the work as two of the nuts had to be chiseled off by hand which took 45 minutes of hard manual work.
The tires were done, the bills were paid and we returned to purchase matching new hubcaps which certainly made Susi look ‘groovy’.
When we returned to the camp, we discovered that the battery power was operating at about 10%. No matter how you slice and dice it, we believe that we have had our third “bad” event. Georg was just beginning to relax when he was hit with this other problem to solve. I kept myself busy cooking. So tonight we are typing our blog with the aid of about ten candles. Looking forward to tomorrow and the Plzen Urquell Brewery tour and an easy resolution to the electrical problem