Friday, April 19, 2013

The Bad Idea Fairy maintains my trailer

The Plan was to go to Grizzly and ride the LD. The Plan was to continue putting money into the “place of our own” fund. The Plan was to get my trailer bearings repacked.

Oh, how time makes fools of us all!

I was in Walla Walla two weekends ago for a wine event, and when we got home to Salem, I was promptly ill. Not the kind of vomitous one-night food poisoning illness that comes and goes, but the really unpleasant, sore throat, it’s-hard-to-breathe right, why-do-all-my-muscles hurt sickness that lingers and makes it really hard to get motivated to ride.

But I was inching back toward normal as the week was ending, so I decided to take the trailer in for its spring checkup before hauling over the pass to Grizzly. This is just a normal, relatively inexpensive safety check THAT EVERYONE SHOULD DO.  (If you are not on the spring checkup for vehicles bandwagon, please join me!)

I will be the first to admit that vehicle maintenance is not my forte. I’m mostly oblivious to problems unless there is actual smoke or a loud CLUNK involved. Well, a few weeks ago when I took Blue to the vet to get his teeth done, I noticed a bit of a hot brake smell. The drive was only 15 minutes, though, and I wasn’t totally sure that it was me and not the cars around me. When we stopped, I walked around the trailer, sniffing and examining, but didn’t find any issues.

The next time out with the trailer, there was the smell again, but it hauled fine and I was already on the road, so I listened to the Bad Idea Fairy and kept on driving. And the time after that, there was no smell and no big problems. The brakes felt a little wimpy, but the Bad Idea Fairy pointed out that I could just turn up the controller to compensate. Clearly whatever was causing that smell had worked itself out… (la la la la I am happy in my own imaginary land la la la…)

Note to non-trailer-hauling friends: Horse trailers are not self-healing. What had worked out, according to pictures I received from my mechanic yesterday, is that all the brakes and drums on my trailer are shot. Moreover, two of the tires have been so damaged by the uneven braking that they need replaced. And really, while we’re talking about tires, we should probably replace all five because the ones that are on it were older than I had been led to believe when I bought it. (PS: Trailer tires have to be replaced more than car tires anyway.)

So what had been a feeling of ambivalence about going to Grizzly because of my recent illness has now solidified into staying home and feeling sorry for myself. The trailer is out of commission, my bank account is empty, and I’m still a little sick.

So friends, if any of you are in regular contact with the Money Fairy (mother of the Bad Idea Fairy?), please ask her to come sprinkle some of her magic dust on me this month so I can make it to Mt. Adams.

2 comments:

  1. The Bad Idea Fairy maintains my truck.

    And no. I don't wanna talk about it.

    Sigh.

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  2. this post had me LOL several times. "unless there is actual smoke": ) i still have dreams of losing the brakes on my car/truck, because of the times my truck couldn't stop the horse trailer very well (i was under-trucked for years). i kep a dream journal and this is perhaps my most common dream. aarene has the scariest hauling stories of all - ask her!

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