Today started off pretty good. I got up early, had a nice warm shower and a great breakfast!
When I stopped last night I didn’t have much fuel, it was getting to be a little later in the afternoon so I figured I’d top off and get a good start today. I drove about 40 miles to a Petro stop, grabbed about 70 gallons of fuel, a couple of snacks and I was on my way! When leaving the truckstop, I made a u-turn in the back parking lot, it wasn’t paved and had huge potholes, I hit one of them and without knowing it I’d popped the trailer off of the hitch.
Once I got onto the interstate a guy pulled up right next to me honking and pointing backward – I couldn’t see what was going on exactly so I pulled over to check out… bad news. The trailer had been off the hitch since the truckstop – maybe a mile or so but enough time to do some damage.
I took this pic just before I was pulling my truck off the trailer – I figured I should document the damage for insurance purposes if I turn it in. FORTUNATELY the tongue of the trailer didn’t puncture the radiator. It dinged it up a little but didn’t do any severe damage.
I unloaded the truck, re-hitched the trailer, re-loaded the truck and made it to the next rest stop. Thats where I sat most of the day today. π I tried to get a mobile mechanic, or a tow truck – no such luck. The one company I spoke with said they could probably line up a truck for tomorrow and help me out. In the meantime I took apart the entire mechanism trying to figure out how to adjust it or rig it so that it would hold until I got to Tucson, no such luck.
Its easy to get mad, frustrated or down about something like this, but just like everything in life, experiences are what you make of them. I could rant and rave and go on and on about how this sucks and I won’t make to Tucson today as I had planned. I could get all bent about the money its going to cost to repair the damages. Actually, I started down that path but only for a few minutes. Really… those of you that know me well might suspect otherwise! Truly speaking I turned it around fast. I didn’t dwell on it in a negative way.
I looked at it like this; It could be raining, I could be stuck on the highway in the middle of nowhere instead of a safe rest area. It could have happened at night making things much more dangerous and difficult. My truck could have swayed back and forth enough to flip over and take my motorcycle with it…along with anyone else on the highway at the time…none of that happened. It was really a fairly low key event and no one got hurt, no vehicles lost.
The sun was out all day, it was around 75 and the scenery was really amazing. Of all places to be stranded for the short-term, I’m not sure I could have picked one as nice. πΒ This will get fixed and I’ll be back on my way again. I just need to give it patience and time, and for once in my life I have plenty of both!
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