Good eye Mac!
The 90 day river trip of 1,600 miles down the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers last fall was great boating but we had a whole other adventure when returning home. If the suspense is killing you, here is what happened to us:
We were trailering the Laurie Ann back home to Seattle from Mobile Bay, Alabama in early November and when we arrived at my cousin's house in Denver, her first words were, "You are a week to late because the snow storms are coming." On the third day of the visit, a quick blanket of snow arrived but it was melted by early afternoon and we decided to leave the next day before the next system arrived on the Colorado Plateau. The next day the webcams on I-80 showed bare but wet pavement and the air temperature was in the mid to high 30's with steady winds of 25 to 35 miles per hours. In the early afternoon we drove through Cheyenne and headed west on I-80. Cheyenne's elevation is 6,000 feet.
About 8 miles west of Cheyenne, while climbing a gentle rise, the truck abruptly slid to the shoulder. When the front wheels hit the gravel, the boat and trailer jackknifed, slamming into the passenger side of the truck with a sickening crunch that an impact at 35 miles per hour can cause. Suddenly and in very slow motion, we were spinning off the interstate with the boat married to the passenger side of the truck. In a few seconds it was all over and when the curtain of snow that was kicked up dropped, we were upright and facing the wrong direction on the wide shoulder. The trailer's tongue was bent 90 degrees breaking all the wiring and the brake lines. Then, we watched two other vehicles slide off the freeway at the same spot. One of them rolled over and over.
The blessing: If we had slid off the freeway 300 yards in either direction, we would have gone down a steep embankment that would have likely caused serious injuries and destroyed both the truck and boat.
After calling 911 and making sure the other driver in the rolled vehicle was fine, Laurie call BoatUS who we had towing and boat insurance with. She was connected to Jason who worked with her on getting a response to our situation. The Wyoming Highway Patrol arrived and promptly ordered more sand for the black ice that had just formed on the freeway. Laurie used the laptop with the aircard to find a welding shop in Cheyenne who could do the work on the trailer. By this time, I had unhitched the trailer and drove the truck on the shoulder to confirm that the vehicle was drive-able. Jason found a tow truck and made the financial arrangements.
Within two hours, the trailer and boat was towed to a shop in Cheyenne where it would be worked on the following Monday. We drove back to Denver while the repairs were done. Our trailer is a King Trailer that is made near our house in Marysville. When the shop could not get the needed parts, King Trailer over night shipped the parts to Cheyenne. 5 days later, with a repaired trailer and after day trips to Rocky Mountain National Park, we were off again for Seattle.
Back home, the truck was repaired for about $5,000, the trailer was completely rebuilt by King Trailer for about $900, and the Ranger Tug was absolutely fine with no serious damage. Only one part of the hull's gel coat was scratched and I do those repairs all the time. The get home fix by the welding shop was $800. The towing bill in Cheyenne was $900 and we never saw a bill. It was $10 policy addition that was well spent.
If I had to do it over again, I would have taken the southern route to get home or if caught in that same situation, I would have put the truck in four wheel drive at the first sign of wet pavement with a snow covered shoulder.
Oh, I am not going to travel across the Colorado Plateau after November 1!
(You can have my autograph anytime!)
