Last week, my brother and I were heading for Cacapon State Park near Berkeley Springs, WV for a family reunion. We had a tee time but we felt like we had left plenty of time....until we got a flat tire on I-66 in Fauquier County, Va. near Marshall. We pulled over and changed the tire with the biggest issue moving all of our golf clubs, push carts, coolers and luggage to get to the spare tire and then putting it all back in again with the flat tire in there also. We made it to our tee time and while I was playing golf, I asked one of the workers on the golf course where a good place to get my tire fixed would be. He quickly directed me to Bob's Tire Service on the left side of 522 as you headed into Berkeley Springs. He said: "They will take care of you at Bob's". After golf, I headed to Bob's driving on my donut spare tire. When I pulled in and went into the office, the guy in the office had already seen my donut through the window and after confirming that I wanted to see if it could be repaired, he wrote something on a piece of paper and directed me to put it in the windshield and then pull into the second open door. I did this and suddenly I felt that I was part of the first "Back to the Future" movie. Remember back in 1955 when the guy pulled into the gas station and runs over those rubber hoses that make the "dinging" noise. In response, a bunch of gas station employees all come running out to service his car. It was just like that at Bob's. There was a guy rolling a floor jack toward the spare tire and another with the air gun to loosen the lug nuts. A third guy came and got the flat tire out of the back of my car and had it on the tire machine within one minute of my arrival.
Unfortunately, I had driven over a deer bone, which had punctured my tire and it was too far gone to plug. He showed me the damage and it wasn't hard to see that the tire was a lost cause. Meanwhile the other two guys had already stowed the spare away in the back of my car but had to get it back out as they didn't have my size tire in stock and it had to be ordered. They said it would be ready the next day and they kept my wheel so they could put the tire on so it would be ready when I came back after golf the following day.
When I arrived the next day, it was like "Back to the Future" all over again and if I had paid the bill instead of watching these guys efficiently get the new tire on and put the spare and all of the tire tools away neatly in the correct places, I would have been out of there in less than 5 minutes. For a second, I felt like a NASCAR driver at a green flag pit stop.
One other thing - they never asked me or told me that I needed to get two tires like I have heard every time I have been to a tire place around Woodbridge. I asked about that and the guy showed me that the tread on the remaining tires was in excellent condition (less than 10,000 miles) and there should be no issue with the new tire matching up with the ones that remained.
I tip my hat to the folks at Bob's Tire Service. It is obvious that service is important to them. Thanks for taking good care of me!! read more