Door County, Wisconsin

 

August 16th thru 19th

Ok, this would have been worth at least $10,000 on Funniest Home Videos except we were too busy trying to stay alive for any filming to happen.

This is our fourth Desi adventure since we purchased it in April.  Learning more each time that we go out in it.  So far, we have been very lucky and our learning experiences have only cost us some time and maybe had some entertainment value for anyone in the area.

We got our first “Oops” out of the way right off the bat this time.  Our plan was to leave Karen’s house about 8:00 in the morning.  I got there about 7:15 and we were both low on our caffeine level for the morning but we got right to work to hook up Desi to “Fred” – her vehicle that we use to tow.  We have a checklist that we use to be sure that we have everything connected, locked up, and checked before we leave.  It’s when we veer off of that plan that things can turn out to be interesting.

Desi was being kept on the driveway – and we even had it chained to a tree and blocks behind the tires to be sure that it didn’t roll down and out into the street.  Her driveway has a good incline to the house.  We seem to have our problems when setting the ball on the hitch to the cap on the trailer hitch.  (There are probably real names for these.)  This only happens at her house.  When we are connecting everything at the campground, we impress ourselves.

We couldn’t get the cap to drop down all of the way on the ball.  We jiggled the car back and forth but it didn’t help.  Karen pulled the car with Desi in tow about a foot from our starting point.  It still didn’t drop in place.  I thought it looked like it just had to be loosened a little bit and then move the car again.

Bad idea.  The chain had been disconnected; the blocks were no longer in place; the car was at an angle; so when I released the cap from the ball nothing was holding them together; and we were at the top of a hill.

Desi took off down the hill.  My car was parked alongside it so I tried to hold on to Desi to keep it from my car and stop it before going into the street.  It didn’t matter what I wanted. 3000 lb Desi was doing its own thing.  Karen was yelling “Let it go!” I was just hoping a car wasn’t coming down the street and checking the neighbor’s yard across the street to see what problems we were looking forward to. A tree, some garbage cans, a culvert, and a good amount of open yard.  No need to be concerned.  Desi never made it that far.  I think It took a sharp right turn near the end of the driveway, through Karen’s culvert, and up into the front yard. Karen thinks it turned into the yard and then headed into the ditch. But neither of us saw the 4 seconds that took because I couldn’t keep up with Desi and ended up on my butt on the driveway and Karen was scrambling out of Fred to see if I had gotten run over.  Still have a good bruise to remind me that it was a stupid thing to do.

So lucky.  I didn’t get too hurt, no traffic on the road, didn’t go into the neighbor’s yard, the trailer was still upright but leaning badly into the ditch. The hitch post was imbedded in the ground and the wheel on the end of it was at a right angle.

It didn’t take long to attract attention and get some suggestions on how to get it out.  Had a few offers of help but everyone decided we needed major equipment  to get us out of this mess.  Within minutes we had an informal neighborhood meeting.  New neighbors were meeting old neighbors and the others were just catching up on life and wondering how this was going to work out.  Passers by stopped to gawk and chat and even the garbage truck driver stopped to wish he could help. Karen’s next door neighbor keeps threatening to bring a chair and popcorn when we do anything.

So, we called a tow truck.  Didn’t go well from the beginning when he asked Karen if we needed a winch.  Maybe or maybe not – would be good to know exactly what a winch is and how it would help get our trailer out of the ditch so she sent a picture.  A short while later a giant tow truck shows up.    I’m guessing we needed a winch or at least the heavy-duty equipment. Thought of dragging it thru the culvert to the street but that idea was quickly scratched when the trailer seemed to be leaning a little bit more and would definitely bottom out.  He connected a chain after checking out the situation and pushed the trailer out of the ditch and up into Karen’s front yard as far as the equipment would go and dragged it parallel to the street.

He disconnected the wheel from the post and got all of the dirt out.  It had completely ripped the wheel from the post and the little metal bar that connects thru them was bent like a finger.  No damage to the trailer!!!  With a few minutes of hammering, the wheel was back on and we were good to go.

He kindly offered to connect Desi to Fred and park it facing the street and we accepted.  Our plan was for a 4-day trip to Door County – staying at Rustic Timbers Campground in Egg Harbor.  We expected the trip to take about 5 hours.  Our biggest fear was driving on 355 or 294 with all of the construction and heavy traffic.

We finished packing up the trailer and were on our way at 10:10. Only two hours later than we had planned.

Thank you so much to Sergio’s Towing, Lockport