Chapter 147

21 August 2009

TIMBERWOLF:1 

KIA: 0

It was bound to happen at some point....I just wasn't really ready for it to happen now. I had pulled the trailer home after taking a load the previous week and got into San Antonio late Friday night. I was exhausted and the weeks of traveling and boxing and moving were really wearing on me, but the end was in sight. Oh, it was still a ways off, but it was in sight. So at 2344 I glance at my clock as I crawl into bed and quite literally in one minute I am almost asleep. I hear a distant engine straining at high rpm to pull it's vehicle forward, then quiet as the driver lifts to negotiate a corner and then the motor wakes up again at an angry downshift and my fuzzy brain realizes this noise is getting louder and thus, closer. The downshift complete the little engine is pulling to redline in a lower gear and as I can just begin to perceive tire noise in the mix, the engine noise immediately drops to zero and the tire noise gets very loud and then a seriously large and loud metal-impacting-metal noise with muffled bangs (airbags? tires?) and then quiet for a few seconds and then engine noises again and banging. At the sound of first impact I'm out of bed and opening the front door to see....yup...a car trying to mate with my beloved Timberwolf. 

I'm parked on the other side of my street facing East (legal) so I'm on the right side of the road with my right side tires next to the curb. A guy (we'll call him John) is driving a Kia with a girl with him (Jane) and a guy in the backseat (Joe) and they are FACING my driverside trailer tires and just got through ramming my trailer on the side. He is revving the engine and trying to figure out the gearshift and such, the airbags have blown, the windows are up and the powder is in the air in the car making it hazy. I pop the driver window and he looks at me all started as I yell "SHUT IT DOWN HOTROD". Neighbors are coming out. He shuts it down. 

Long story short, he came down the street behind the trailer, made a right turn onto my street and went wide and nearly hit a parked car on the LEFT side of the street in front of my neighbors house. He corrected right and into the left rear corner of my trailer. The RF or the Kia hit the LR of my trailer and so the rear axle of the Kia spun to the left and he was then sitting facing the side of my trailer and disoriented he was still on the gas and hit the side. He was now quiet. Joe, from the backseat, was stunned by quiet. Jane however, acted like a witch and was loud and obnoxious. She was questioning the legality of the trailer parking, being rude, etc. The cops were called and a prompt 40 minutes later showed up. She got to the cop quickly and with John and Joe sitting on the curb, she launched into the cop with the tirade of illegally parked trailers, no warning cones, etc. She went on about how the trailer is black and you can't see it at night and from behind you can't even see it at all. I was standing with my neighbors (it was definitely a 'them' and 'us' crowd) and had to laugh as one of my neighbors finally had enough and she went and told Jane off. She was simply tired of the crap and really put Jane in her place with a serious smackdown. So the cop walks over to our crowd and I greeted him and told him where I lived and said it was my trailer. John/Jane/Joe had moved the car a bit and I told the officer I had a picture of the incident before the car was moved and showed it to him on my digital camera. He began to laugh. Here is the pic:

Yeah...he laughed at that pic for quite a while and then asked Jane again that she was SURE she couldn't see the trailer?? Finally Jane wandered off down the street (they were headed to a house down my street) and Joe and John were very nice and apologetic and he has insurance and blah blah blah. It was funny once you got passed the whole damaged trailer thing.

Above: Popped the dust cap off the rear axle, but killed the front wheel.

Above: Note angle of the ball. Yeah, that is a 10,000lb rated hitch. Pretty good hit.

Above: Damage in daylight.

The overall loser of the fight. Pass door won't close, airbags deployed, windshield cracked, front bumper on curb and....

Above: Just above the yellow line you can see the control arm RIPPED from the mounts. Nice.