We pulled into the gas station to find Ted and Katherine standing beside their little Bigfoot trailer, looking stunned. Just moments earlier, Ted had glanced in the side mirror to see black smoke billowing out of their left trailer wheel.
This was just the beginning of one of the longest nights of our lives. Here is how it all unraveled:
Sunday afternoon, 4:00 p.m.
We are in the very small town of Borrego Springs. Ted and Katherine’s trailer is undrivable, the wheel bearings and other innards have disintegrated into black, greasy metal shavings. Desperate, we try the solution of a well-meaning but somewhat unbalanced local, who stops on his bicycle to offer advice. His idea involves a Styrofoam cup, rags, and grease—essentially creating a hub for the wheel that would enable us to travel the mile to the campground. It sounds like a somewhat reasonable idea. It doesn’t work.
Trying a creative solution
6:00 p.m. We encourage Ted and Katherine to stay with us in our trailer, but they don’t want to leave their trailer and decide to spend the night in the parking lot of the gas station.
Eric and I go on to the campground, one mile away. It’s growing dark. Our campsite is awkwardly angled and despite several attempts, we can’t maneuver into our site.
6:30 p.m.Eric decides to try from the opposite direction and heads for the trailhead parking lot one-quarter mile away, where he can turn around. Waiting in our site for him to return, I hear an ominous grating noise, followed by the sound of an engine racing. It sounds suspiciously like our truck.
I take off running to the day-use area, where our trailer sprawls sideways across the road, awkwardly listing to one side. In the process of navigating a hairpin turn, the underbelly snagged an enormous partially buried boulder, unearthed it, and dragged it 10 feet into the roadway. Shocked, we look at each other, look at our poor shipwrecked trailer, look at each other again, and say, “Oh my god…we are so screwed.”
High-centered on a boulder
It is now officially dark. We call emergency services and AAA. Eric tells AAA that we are high-centered on a boulder and to send a wrecker. He is emphatic—there is no way a tow truck can extricate us from the boulder. Katherine texts me to say that they’re having dinner in town and that all is well. I text her to say that we are high-centered on a boulder—and that I think we’ve outdone them.
Our poor trailer
7:00 p.m.A park ranger shows up and says, “Wow, you guys are really stuck.” She thanks us for not causing expensive damage to the park (apparently a hapless motorhome driver the week before had sheared off part of the entrance booth) and leaves us with a couple of additional emergency flashers. It starts to rain.
7:30 p.m.Ted and Katherine arrive to provide support. While the guys stand outside in the misting rain trying to figure out a way to free our trailer from the boulder (Shovels? Pry bar? Dynamite?), Katherine and I climb into the listing trailer and open a bottle of wine. The guys assess the damage: twisted front stabilizing jack, bent and unusable front steps, dented black tank, holding tank covers ripped off, cross beams bent, and who knows what else. It’s bad. I say to Katherine, “At this point, I’m just hoping we can drag our trailer into our site, you guys can get your trailer repaired, and we can all enjoy our week in Anza Borrego.”
8:30 p.m.The tow truck finally shows up. The operator has driven in the rain from the town of Julian, 35 miles of slow going on a steep, winding mountain road. We are dismayed to see that he has arrived in a regular tow truck. His first words, “I’m going to have to go back for the wrecker. I’ll see you in two hours.”
Wrecker to the rescue
10:30 p.m.He returns exactly as promised. It takes an hour of delicate maneuvering to free our trailer. He raises the front end of our trailer several feet into the air, and inch-by-inch, finesses it off of the boulder. In the process, the cable slices through our propane line. We turn off the propane. The boulder then has to be winched off the roadway. It takes a long time.
Nope, needs to be higher
12:00 a.m.We hitch up our trailer and pull it a few feet into the trailhead parking lot, where we fall into bed. We cannot use our propane, which means we have no heat, no hot water, no refrigeration, and no means of cooking. We’ll deal with it in the morning. Right now, we’re just incredibly grateful to be off of that boulder.
Dragging the boulder off of the road
A Happy Ending To A Long Night
Dear readers, there is a happy ending to this tale of woe. The next morning, we limped into our site. Eric found the parts he needed at the local hardware store to repair our propane tanks. The rest of the repairs could wait until San Diego and an Arctic Fox dealer. (It has turned out to be much more of an ordeal to get our trailer repaired than we ever imagined, but we’ll save that tale for another post.) Ted and Katherine’s little Bigfoot ended up with serious damage, but they found a terrific mechanic in Borrego Springs who fixed them up with a new axle and all that they needed to get their trailer back on the road (although it took two days, a lot of effort on their part, and two nights sleeping in the bed of their truck in their campsite).
If there truly is such a thing as a bad luck day for travel, I think the four of us experienced it. Mostly, we were grateful that although both of our trailers suffered significant damage, no one was hurt. And despite our challenges, we were able to spend a glorious week in Anza Borrego.
Things look better in the morning
The big, bad boulder
Next up:
Wildflowers, bighorn sheep, and meeting up with friends!
Wow, I’m speechless. I’m glad everyone is ok and hope your new trailer is as good as new. That was definitely a BAD day!
Thanks, Ingrid. It was definitely a BAD day. Five weeks later, we’re still waiting for our trailer repairs to be completed….
We’ve all had days like that, let’s hope this is the worst thing that ever happens to you on the road.
Fred, I hope we’ve gotten our worst experience out of the way, too.
I think you should have blown up the boulder after you got it out! ;)
Believe me, Amanda, we considered it. What a crazy night that was. And as you know, we’re still dealing with the aftereffects!
WOW! What a crazy story, Laurel. Love the part about getting the bottle of wine out of the listing trailer. Definitely the right tactic in that scenario. :)
Haha, yeah, we needed to calm our nerves, Dana. :-)
Oh boy! We laughed, we cried…the day & night it all happened and again as we read this blog, reliving it all! Best of all, we’re still jolly good friends!!
Here’s to bein’ ‘On The Road Again’!
xoxo Ted & Katherine
If we had to go through this experience, we’re happy it was with you two! Thanks for being such great friends, through good times and not so good. We’re looking forward to our next adventure together. xoxo
We’ve had our moments Laurel but this story takes the biscuit! Glad you’re all safe. I like you and Katherine’s solution to the problem. Open a bottle of wine! Cute picture of you and the devil rock.
Hehe, ‘devil rock’ — now why didn’t I think of that? Glad you approved of our solution, Carol. Had you been there you could have joined us!
Oh wow, I don’t even know what to say. What a day for you and your friends. I’m glad everything worked out and that the rest of your stay was fun.
We’ve had similar tales of woe in our travels. Awful when they’re happening and it feels like it’s never going to be all right again but we’re so elated when the problems are fixed and we can go on our merry way again!
Marcia, it definitely helps when people share their tales of woe. We’ve heard lots of great stories since we experienced this event — of course, they’re always a lot more humorous in retrospect!
Oh Laurel, I am SO sorry for all of this. What a tale of horror! Your travels together were going so perfectly and then to have this happen just at the end. I wonder if I would be able to let the worries go and fully enjoy the week at the park. I admire you for being able to. I see from the comments that this was 5 weeks ago and you still are not back up and running perfectly. Hope you’ll tell the story of why in the world it has taken so long. I assume you are able to stay in it near wherever it is being repaired. I’m not a person who usually enjoys wine but in this case it seems like a terrific idea. I mean what else could you do? I just can’t wrap my head around this and your sweet new trailer. I think you should be grandfathered out with Murphy. That was enough for a lifetime.
Sherry, I can’t tell you how many times we all talked about our great good fortune on this journey — perfect weather, beautiful places, and wonderful company. This wasn’t quite what we had in mind for the grand finale! Alas, we have NOT been able to stay in our trailer for five weeks now….but that’s a story for another blog.
Oh my goodness!!! As we say in the south, bless your hearts!!!
Thanks, Janna. I’m from the south, and that makes me feel like I’m with family. :-)
oh oh now, Laurel. I, too, am speechless, even more so as I reached the part about this happening five weeks ago and you are as yet unrepaired. I just can’t imagine. A true test of friendship I would say, and of perseverance. May all your travels the rest of your life never match this one!
Thank you, Sue. In the realm of life events, we know this one is pretty mundane….but the repairs have certainly dragged on much longer than we had anticipated!
Okay, you win! Talk about really needing a good sense of humor on the road :-)))) Can’t believe both of you had such horrendous incidents on the same night! I have to confess that I laughed at “It starts to rain.” Sorry you’re still waiting for repairs :-(
Haha, thanks for giving us the ‘prize,’ Jodee! That night we were in shock, but the next day, we did start to see the teensiest bit of humor in our situation. And now we’re actually able to laugh about the craziness of it all.
Oh, Laurel! You had written about your situation but I had no idea it was bad. The pictures show just how hung up the trailer was. That is one huge boulder. Your poor new home. And poor Ted and Katherine. What a nightmare the four of you went through. Thank goodness you were in a such a beautiful place to help occupy your minds. I do hope both trailers are repaired and happily on the road again:)
Pam, the damage to our new little home was more extensive than we had realized. Ted and Katherine completed their repairs in Anza Borrego and headed back to Ashland the first of March, as planned. We’ve been in San Diego for five weeks now, still waiting for repairs to be completed.
I was wondering where you and Eric were at the present time. Hope all your repairs are completed soon:)
Thanks, Pam — we’re thinking it will still be a couple of weeks before we can leave San Diego. Meanwhile, it’s a great place to be stuck!
Having seen you both and the Fox at Anza Borrego and heard the story, I must say that it sounds worse having it all laid out in a blog post. As you said, the blessing is that no one was hurt. We are sending positive thoughts your way that this little “adventure” will be behind you very soon. Big hugs to you both.
LuAnn, it helped a lot that we got to meet up with you and Terry for the very first time just one day after our traumatic event. And our delay here in San Diego meant that we even got to see you again! Blessings come in many guises. :-)
I’ve really enjoyed reading about your travels! Over many years of camping (tent trailer, slide-in truck camper, motorhome, fifth wheel) I’ve never had an experience this bad – but I’ve come close. Many state and federal campgrounds were designed back when even an 18-foot trailer was a long one, and it’s not unusual to find oneself in a hairpin turn with close to zero room to wiggle through. And often with no place to drop the trailer to be able to explore with just the truck. And who wants to do that at the end of a long day of driving? Anyhow, glad you weren’t physically hurt – fiscal pain is bad enough!
Please keep up the great blog!
I appreciate your kind comment, Rick. And you are absolutely right — even though our trailer is a pretty modest size (at 27′) it’s still challenging at times to navigate the tight turns in many state and federal campgrounds. Thank goodness we have good insurance! It’s helping a lot to mitigate the fiscal pain. I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog. :-)
Because I heard the story on the phone, the only thing I can say at this point is… I am surprised you did not have the boulder made into a necklace! :)
Haha, good idea, sis — I should have chipped off a chunk of it. Necklace or no necklace, I’ll never forget that night!
Wow, I’m so glad you guys were able to get your trailer off that rock! Somehow, having friends around (especially with wine) always helps during a disaster.
Thanks, Thalia. You’re right, being with Ted and Kath helped immensely to ease the trauma! (The wine helped, too, hehe.)
What a nightmare! And I know they don’t sell Arctic Fox in San Diego or anywhere near Southern CA. Yikes!
Lisa, we are so fortunate that there is a dealer in Poway who sells Arctic Fox– and they even have a certified repair facility. We had planned to visit family in Poway for a few days after leaving Anza Borrego, so it worked out well. But we had no idea that five weeks later, we would still be here!
I would kick that rock until it pulverizes! But look at you, you even posed with the culprit!
Reading your tale of nightmares, we are again awakened to realities of life on the road. Things do happen, sometimes in great numbers. But your positive approach and demeanor to open a bottle wine after the mishaps speaks volumes of how calm you and Eric were. Steve and I are just happy to know that you are fine and nobody got hurt.
Love your account :)
Haha, I wish you had been there to kick that rock, MonaLiza! I’m glad you appreciate my positive approach of opening a bottle of wine. It was the only thing I could think of to do after calling 911 and AAA. What a night! Glad it’s behind us.
Laurel, I just bought a copy of ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Day’ for the children in my office. His day was nothing compared to yours. I am so glad that you and Eric, Katherine and Ted are safe. It sounds like it was a Zen Koan if I ever heard one. What is the sound of a ‘Rock’ing trailer in the desert”? Not to be cavalier about it. I’m sure in the moment it was difficult to embrace such an experience. Lots of love, Sheila
Thanks for the good laugh, Sheila. I love that book. That entire day was one crazy event after another, but it’s all working out just fine. We feel pretty lucky. :-)
ouch, ouch and triple ouch! That’s quite the day of “adventures”. I knew you’d had some issues, but this was rougher than I imagined. Not sure I have a story to top that! Hopefully those repairs finish soon.
Nina
It was definitely an adventure, Nina — and one we hope to never repeat. We are, however, having a wonderful time in San Diego while we’re waiting (and waiting and waiting) for our trailer to be repaired.
Oh! Laurel and Eric – this certainly isn’t your typical post! Guess it just goes to show how quickly things can go wrong. So sorry about the damage to your new rig, but glad to hear you are making the best of it while in San Diego.
We are still ‘newbies’, but have made it to Texas on our westward journey! Hope to see you guys soon.
Loretta, so happy to hear that you guys are enjoying the full-time lifestyle! We would love to see you along the way. Yep, unexpected stuff happens on the road, just like anywhere. This was definitely a unique experience — and one we don’t plan to repeat. :-)