Our home follows us on the road.
John, my husband and Earth To Body partner is the main driver on our road tours across the country.
Every spring we join the craft show circuit, bringing our product fresh to market.
John is not a trucker.
He never had to handle massive semis day in day out.
He did not need CB lingo to warn his buddies of a ‘Smoky in the bush’*, or ‘Kojack with a Kodak’ **
This spring we decided to upgrade our 25-foot trailer to a 30 footer. Add a few extra feet on the new and necessary GM Savanna and the Earth To Body caravan is a whole new pulling adventure.
Pulling a trailer forward is doable
But REVERSING a hitched trailer is a conundrum.
Turning the wheel one way, expecting the trailer to go in the same direction just does not happen. It is almost surreal.
Then add a snowstorm. Picture Montreal snowplows organizing the deluge. Efficient. No army necessary. Workers blasting the snow onto the perimeters, resulting in huge snow mounds, heavy, hard and not shovel friendly.
Not the perfect setting for maneuvering a too long trailer. Since we live on a very rigid schedule, we had to haul on this particular day. No room for Plan B.
John’s job was to back the new trailer into our especially narrow, icy and tree hugged driveway.
They say 4 out of 5 woman get ‘left to right’ mixed up when giving directions. Proud to be ‘woman’, I delegated the job of ‘traffic copping the trailer’ to Russ (our operations manager and very capable guy!)
He had to stand out in the cold and damp, hand signal and vocally direct the entire procedure. I was relegated to window watching with my eyes closed.
45 minutes later, picture this:
Our new RV strung across the road, having slid totally out of control on one of the many hidden ice patches. A circus street scene. Blocked cars honking. John and Russ running back and forth with shovels, fruitlessly attempting to diminish the incriminating snow piles. The dogs barking.
Finally the city snowplowers to the rescue, with machines heavy enough to eradicate the enemy snow banks attacking the trailer. The dogs still barking.
Forward. Backward. Turn. Slide. Crash.
I peek. I notice a dent in the left back bumper. An ice attack. The trailer was 4 hours old.
Suddenly the straight shoot of the trailer down the driveway. Perfection.
Only one small dent in the floating metal bumper. Not to worry. Blame the ice and snow and maybe bad timing. A glitch. Reparable. My trucker hero.
Do you have a hero?
On the road again.
* Speed trap apolice officer with a laser/radar gun and camera.
**‘Kojak with a kodak - a police officer with a laser/radar gun and camera.
