Okay, it was less like a straw and more like an entire roof's worth of shingles. And it was less like a camel and more like a dump trailer. You've seen pictures of this trailer. This is it:
Well, this weekend, Dave and I stripped the asphalt shingles off the roof of the shack. (We don't really have any pictures of this because, though we have been working hard, we are at our wits end and are not reaching for the camera as often.) We put all the shingles - every single one - into this trailer. This trailer is something my father inherited from my Grandfather on my mother's side. It is made of a truck axle from a GMC truck that originated sometime in the first half of the twentieth century. Dave dubbed it the "Road Warrior" trailer because it is rusty and has things missing from it and it's brake lights are smashed. It is just full of character. Sometimes we just call it Rusty.
Anyway, my father and I are driving down Route 4 (a very busy road that runs across southern New Hampshire) on our way to the dump with a whole %!#@* load of asphalt shingles in the trailer. Suddenly there is a bang and some very load grinding. Dad pulled off the road and started shouting for me to give him my water bottle because the trailer was on fire! So, I tossed him my water bottle and he ran to cool off the trailer before the whole load lit fire.
As it turned out, the trailer was not on fire, but the axle was very very hot. The left wheel bearing had seized up and the wheel kept turning, so the whole wheel just twisted right off of the axle. (the guy in the picture is Ray. He lives near where we pulled over, and he came over to see if he could help.)
So, as you can see, the wheel is about to fall off and the trailer is looking a lot like it might dump it's load of shingles and rooffing nails all over the highway. We were lucky enough to pull over across the street from E-Z Docking Solutions owned by a friend of my father's, John, who makes and sells docks.
These three guys worked pretty hard to keep that from happening. (from top to bottom, the guy in the blue shirt is John, the guy in the green is my dad, and the guy in the gray is Brian)
The wheel had come off completely.
After deciding that it is a bad idea to try to "kinda" push the wheel back on and limp the trailer across the highway to John's parking lot, they had a new idea.
I didn't think that this forklift could pick up this trailer.
It seems that I was wrong.
They had a little trouble getting the forks underneath the trailer, so they had to try from the street. In order to do that, my mother, Liz, had to stop traffic with the Geo Metro (whose name is Buster, if you were wondering.) Liz and Buster arrived on the scene as fast as lightning with a six-ton-jack and some blocks to hold up the axle.
So, with the traffic stopped, the forklift pulled old Rusty across the highway while the cars waited.
Now here Rusty lies.
He is sitting in John's parking lot awaiting our return with a new bearing. Rusty is still full of shingles. What will happen next in these crazy shack adventures!?
Well, this weekend, Dave and I stripped the asphalt shingles off the roof of the shack. (We don't really have any pictures of this because, though we have been working hard, we are at our wits end and are not reaching for the camera as often.) We put all the shingles - every single one - into this trailer. This trailer is something my father inherited from my Grandfather on my mother's side. It is made of a truck axle from a GMC truck that originated sometime in the first half of the twentieth century. Dave dubbed it the "Road Warrior" trailer because it is rusty and has things missing from it and it's brake lights are smashed. It is just full of character. Sometimes we just call it Rusty.
Anyway, my father and I are driving down Route 4 (a very busy road that runs across southern New Hampshire) on our way to the dump with a whole %!#@* load of asphalt shingles in the trailer. Suddenly there is a bang and some very load grinding. Dad pulled off the road and started shouting for me to give him my water bottle because the trailer was on fire! So, I tossed him my water bottle and he ran to cool off the trailer before the whole load lit fire.
As it turned out, the trailer was not on fire, but the axle was very very hot. The left wheel bearing had seized up and the wheel kept turning, so the whole wheel just twisted right off of the axle. (the guy in the picture is Ray. He lives near where we pulled over, and he came over to see if he could help.)
So, as you can see, the wheel is about to fall off and the trailer is looking a lot like it might dump it's load of shingles and rooffing nails all over the highway. We were lucky enough to pull over across the street from E-Z Docking Solutions owned by a friend of my father's, John, who makes and sells docks.
These three guys worked pretty hard to keep that from happening. (from top to bottom, the guy in the blue shirt is John, the guy in the green is my dad, and the guy in the gray is Brian)
The wheel had come off completely.
After deciding that it is a bad idea to try to "kinda" push the wheel back on and limp the trailer across the highway to John's parking lot, they had a new idea.
I didn't think that this forklift could pick up this trailer.
It seems that I was wrong.
They had a little trouble getting the forks underneath the trailer, so they had to try from the street. In order to do that, my mother, Liz, had to stop traffic with the Geo Metro (whose name is Buster, if you were wondering.) Liz and Buster arrived on the scene as fast as lightning with a six-ton-jack and some blocks to hold up the axle.
So, with the traffic stopped, the forklift pulled old Rusty across the highway while the cars waited.
Now here Rusty lies.
He is sitting in John's parking lot awaiting our return with a new bearing. Rusty is still full of shingles. What will happen next in these crazy shack adventures!?
