Tuesday, February 15, 2011

11/7 More Campfire Stories

First I have to say that we had a wonderful day with our granddaughter. Build-a-Bear is a fantastic place for kids to see their own stuffed animal become reality & have a hand in its creation. Needless to say the bear was stuffed, given a heart, bathed, clothed, & named. A birth certificate was created & voila a memory was created for us & our granddaughter.

Now for a story for the campfire. When something doesn't go exactly as planned & we survive I consider this fodder for the blog or stories around the campfire. Some call it "something to laugh about later". Well as I mentioned before we were helping our youngest son, Charlie, move back to Pinellas County. We borrowed a trailer from a friend & headed towards east FL to pick him up. Around Lakeland the trailer broke loose at about 60mph. After a panic filled move to the side of the road we got out to see the damage. The trailer did not break loose from the ball which is usually the weakest point in a tow vehicle/trailer hookup. No we have to be different. The trailer actually broke in half. The tongue separated from the rest of the trailer. That means that the only connection was the light wiring harness. Realizing that there was no reason for me to have been able to get to the side of the road gave me a "poop-in-my-pants" moment. Damn lucky is all I can say.

Is this the end of our story? Noooooo! While we were figuring out what to do next a mattress comes flying past us. The truck it flew out of turned in the median & came back for it. The poor guy couldn't get it because the idiots on the interstate wouldn't stop for the 20 seconds he needed. So Mary & I took it upon ourselves to stop traffic. One driver tried to drive around us which just ticked Mary off. She stepped in front of the driver & dared her to move. Literally seconds later traffic was moving.

My friend said he would come for his trailer & that we should go on. So on we went while Mary called for a U-Haul in Sanford. We picked up the rental, got Charlie & his stuff, & hit the road back. With all the excitement we still made the 250 mile round trip in only 6 hours!

Today we went to the state fair with friends. With "chamber of commerce weather" it was going to be a good day. As is custom at the fair we walked a lot, ate too much "not-good-for-you" food, & saw a couple of shows. We checked out the vendors & crafters but didn't find anything we couldn't live without. Almost 7 hours later we had had enough & headed home.

Today is only Tuesday & I don't know if we will survive the week since the rest of it is booked pretty full. Tonight will be an early night so this is good night from a very tired house in Largo FL because.....

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary

1 comment:

  1. I can't imagine how scary loosing that trailer would have been. Glad it turned out all right.

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