Monday, July 1, 2013 - Long, Hard Day with TWO Calamities on the Way to Huron NF

Even though we thought we had a fairly short day of driving, we got up early and headed out to Reed City, where we picked up breakfast first, then headed out to the farm to pick up ten more bales of hay for Clio. After some maneuvering, I managed to pull into the barn and get loaded up, though when I turned around up by the house, I almost got stuck in some soft sand that was in the middle of the driveway. Eric, the hay man, had to move a car so I could get around, but I managed to get turned around and back up to the barn. After loading the hay, Hubby had to go up to the same driveway and turn around, and unfortunately, hadn't noticed that I almost got stuck, and didn't have his radio with him when I told him to be careful of the soft sand, so the result was that he got the van and horse trailer stuck, and I mean REALLY stuck. So deep in the sand the driveshaft was buried in it! To make matters worse, Eric's tractor was in the shop, so the "easy" way out wasn't available to us. For the next two and a half hours, we jacked and dug and unhitched and manhandled everything until we finally managed to get everything turned around and on (reasonably) hard ground again. We worked up quite a sweat, especially with temperatures getting up to the unseasonable 90's. Finally got back on the road again, making good time, until we reached a resort town with a bit more traffic. As we came to a light at a strange intersection, there were two lanes. One was marked with arrows indicating it was only for right turns and straight aheads, and the other only for left turns and straight aheads. From the looks of it on my GPS, we had to be in the left lane, so I made a lane change just before going through the light, which changed right after me. Hubby saw me move, but because the light had changed, he could only move partially into the left lane, as there was another car in that lane already stopped. His turn signal was on (and it's REALLY bright on the horse trailer), and the left lane behind him was clear, until the light changed. Just as he started to follow the car in front of him, an old guy in a red pickup, ignoring the turn signal, as well as the fact that he couldn't have passed Hubby anyway since he was already well into the lane, he pulled up inside of the horse trailer. Not surprising, the horse trailer then lightly scraped the side of his truck, from about the front of the passenger side door forward. Hubby wasn't even aware of it, since he had assumed that once he was halfway in the lane, no one would be stupid enough to try to pass him on the left. A few minutes later, he called me on the radio to tell me someone was flagging him down, so I pulled over into an abandoned gas station. He followed, as well as the red pickup and a "witness," some long-haired type that wouldn't stop talking, claiming he saw the whole thing and that it was all Hubby's fault! Fact, if Hubby had pulled in front of the pickup, the pickup would have hit the van, not been scraped by the horse trailer. The only damage we had was that the side marker light on the wheel well had been torn off. Anyway, the red pickup guy wouldn't accept just swapping insurance, and I was pretty sure the law would be on our side anyway, so then we had to wait around for a police office to get there, another 15 minutes, than hang around explaining the whole thing. We don't know if we convinced the office of who was to blame, since he first heard from the "witness," but once we explained it to him he seemed to waver a bit. Later I thought more about it, and the best way to defend it would be to ask who would be responsible if a tractor trailer is making a right turn, but have to swings into the left lane to make it, and when he does, a four-wheeler runs up between the truck and the curb, when the truck hits the car, who's fault is that? Anyway, the whole thing set us back yet another hour plus. From there we stopped at Walmart, but forgot to get gas in the extra gas can for the generator, so we had to stop yet again to do that. We FINALLY arrived at the campground 5:30! Obviously much later than we had planned. We eventually found the only site that looked promising for a satellite signal (#7), which was also right across from the pumphouse. Unfortunately, whoever was here before us did a terrible job cleaning up, and it looked like there were 8-10 horses here. It was a mess! We picked out an area to highline in the trees, as the area under the highline post was filthy and muddy and I refuse to put more horses into it. It was bad enough having to string them between trees that were almost as dirty, but I cleaned it up a little before we put them on it. We started setting up, filling up the RV tank and the portable barrel for the horses. This required a jury-rigged system, as the spigot has no threads for a hose, and is spring-loaded, making you have to hold it. Well, at least until we rigged up a bungee cord to do so, and a hose with no end fit nicely over the spigot : -). Hubby tried to get a satellite signal, which was iffy at best, getting only one satellite, as a tree was blocking the others. We'll try again in the morning. It was after 8:00 before we finally finished getting set up, exhausted from the exertion and the ordeals of the day. Settled down for what was left of the evening, hoping for a quiet night!