Years ago. I mean YEARS!
July 4. Got out of the bed, back is hurting. Great, I have a day off work and hurting. Well it's still a day off! Rolled out of the bed, went to the potty, went to the kitchen. Cellphone had a voicemail on it from the girl I was seeing at the time. Voicemail says she's left me. Ok great start to a July 4. Moped around the house a little bit, did some yard work. Feeling kinda bad, I got in the truck (or KRUCK, or cark whatever you call an el camino, I called it other things which I'll not discuss at this time) and decided to go to my friend's cabin. They were out of the country a while and I had it to myself. Out in the STICKS. You gotta pump daylight into that place. Figured I'll just stay the night. Yep that's what I'm doing. Took a few personals and a change of clothes and headed over there. Stayed the night no issue. Mind you it's about 3 hours 15 minutes from the house, not that far by miles but all dirt paths once off of the main road, 5 mph tops. 4 wheeler is a lot easier but I didnt' have one. Sat out on the porch until about 2am watching animals and such finally got tired and went to bed. Got up next morning, before dawn. Had some oatmeal. Realized, crud I have to work today (2nd job...supposed to be at work by 6pm). Ok great I'll just leave in a little bit and head home, shower and get ready. Few hours went by of relaxing on the porch, even got to "pet" a deer (she was real curious and I was able to scratch her side). Got in the truck or cark and headed home. Got down to the DIRT ROAD no issue. Mind you the road is about 16 miles from town, where the main highway is. Most of the road is gravel in the hills, switchbacks, mountainous gravel road. Got going, about 25, come around a curve, truck didn't want to go around the curve and went straight off the side of the hillside. There is a boulder about 4x the size of the truck on the high side of the curve, the low side? A couple of sweet gum trees and 2 smaller oaks. That's IT. Roughly 150 foot down from there. I saw nothing in front of me as I went over the side and all at once, it stopped. When people say they see their lives flash in front of them, they ain't lying....a million thoughts happen all at once and you don't even comprehend what's happening, you just see what happened to you in the past. Next thing I know I'm not moving, I look through the windshield, can't see anything but leaves and dirt and rocks. Look out the passenger side, I see a tree trunk. Driver's side? Sky. Vehicle on it's side, up against a 8" dia oak tree. I wiggled out of the car and took a look-that ONE tree was holding the car from going the rest of the way down. Once I regained some composure, I realized it's fixing to get southern USA HOT (and humid) so I better (1) find water and (2) find some help cause it's a long walk into town. Found a pond and used a cup out of the cark for water. Good, that's taken care of. Now, where am I and where's the closest place? Dunno-not familiar with the area. So I took off walking down that main road thinking maybe a vacationer might stop. I walked for seemingly hours and hours, stopping at a ditch here and there for some water. Finally I hear a vehicle coming up the road. I flagged them down and the two men in the truck stopped and asked if I was ok. Well yes and no. I'm alive but I've rolled my truck over by the balancing rock. Guys gave me a ride into town. Boy was I glad for that. On the way I found out that area is well-known for vehicles going off that hillside, guy says there are at least 4 that he knows of, and once they're down there, that's where they are because there is no getting them out. They dropped me off at the store and I called a wrecker, who never showed up (july 4...), called another one, several hours later he showed up and said where's it at. I told him and he says oh gosh there is no telling if it's possible to get it out. We get there and he hooked onto the side of it, yanked it upright, then I put the cable on the hitch and drug it up the hill to the road. One flat tire. Changed that (spare) and guess what? I hit the key, it coughed a little but fired right up. Drove it home too! It was trashed, frame bent, but the driver door worked and that's all I cared about.
I estimated my time of wreck to be about 0830, got to the store in town at just after noon (had to wait for people to come back from lunchbreak), then the 2nd wrecker showed up at exactly 1550. When I got back into my cark to drive off, the clock showed 1742. By time I got home, it was well after dark. Did not make it to work, but I did call em from the little store and explained that I had rolled my vehicle and they were fine with my not showing up. I had 17 payments left on the El Camino, and I made every one of them while I drove it, wrecked. It was certainly an attention getter in that condition. Sold it to the neighbor kid who pulled the 3.8 (chevy) V6 out of it and did a bunch of work to it and stuffed it into his El Camino (same Cruck) and honestly it was pretty darn fast. Cam heads lots of compression, lots of Brodix parts. Brodix ain't too far from here...
I've had bad days since but every time I go back to this memory and it reminds me, as bad as this day is, it could be worse.
Neighbor guy has a really high end hotrodded 300hp+ Can-Am side-by-side. He shows up last week and asks if I can work on his mower for him. Sure no problem what's wrong? Won't start. It was running, he parked it, next time he went to use it, smoke from exhaust tried to start but just won't. Ok fine bring it on. He drags it (seriously, drug it--park brake on the whole way) to the house behind the little IH Cub tractor, drops it and heads home. Both of the fuel tanks have diesel in them. I thought to myself man what an idio.......wait....if his gas can is full of diesel and he's only got one can, I better call him and warn him not to put that "gas" into the can-am, will destroy the engine. So I called him and told him. Today I get a text, says man you don't know how much I appreciate the heads-up with the gas can....that could have been really, really ugly. So when I seen the comment about "diesel" above, it made me think of this deal. it could have been worse. A lot worse, and I'm clearly happy that it wasn't.
July 4. Got out of the bed, back is hurting. Great, I have a day off work and hurting. Well it's still a day off! Rolled out of the bed, went to the potty, went to the kitchen. Cellphone had a voicemail on it from the girl I was seeing at the time. Voicemail says she's left me. Ok great start to a July 4. Moped around the house a little bit, did some yard work. Feeling kinda bad, I got in the truck (or KRUCK, or cark whatever you call an el camino, I called it other things which I'll not discuss at this time) and decided to go to my friend's cabin. They were out of the country a while and I had it to myself. Out in the STICKS. You gotta pump daylight into that place. Figured I'll just stay the night. Yep that's what I'm doing. Took a few personals and a change of clothes and headed over there. Stayed the night no issue. Mind you it's about 3 hours 15 minutes from the house, not that far by miles but all dirt paths once off of the main road, 5 mph tops. 4 wheeler is a lot easier but I didnt' have one. Sat out on the porch until about 2am watching animals and such finally got tired and went to bed. Got up next morning, before dawn. Had some oatmeal. Realized, crud I have to work today (2nd job...supposed to be at work by 6pm). Ok great I'll just leave in a little bit and head home, shower and get ready. Few hours went by of relaxing on the porch, even got to "pet" a deer (she was real curious and I was able to scratch her side). Got in the truck or cark and headed home. Got down to the DIRT ROAD no issue. Mind you the road is about 16 miles from town, where the main highway is. Most of the road is gravel in the hills, switchbacks, mountainous gravel road. Got going, about 25, come around a curve, truck didn't want to go around the curve and went straight off the side of the hillside. There is a boulder about 4x the size of the truck on the high side of the curve, the low side? A couple of sweet gum trees and 2 smaller oaks. That's IT. Roughly 150 foot down from there. I saw nothing in front of me as I went over the side and all at once, it stopped. When people say they see their lives flash in front of them, they ain't lying....a million thoughts happen all at once and you don't even comprehend what's happening, you just see what happened to you in the past. Next thing I know I'm not moving, I look through the windshield, can't see anything but leaves and dirt and rocks. Look out the passenger side, I see a tree trunk. Driver's side? Sky. Vehicle on it's side, up against a 8" dia oak tree. I wiggled out of the car and took a look-that ONE tree was holding the car from going the rest of the way down. Once I regained some composure, I realized it's fixing to get southern USA HOT (and humid) so I better (1) find water and (2) find some help cause it's a long walk into town. Found a pond and used a cup out of the cark for water. Good, that's taken care of. Now, where am I and where's the closest place? Dunno-not familiar with the area. So I took off walking down that main road thinking maybe a vacationer might stop. I walked for seemingly hours and hours, stopping at a ditch here and there for some water. Finally I hear a vehicle coming up the road. I flagged them down and the two men in the truck stopped and asked if I was ok. Well yes and no. I'm alive but I've rolled my truck over by the balancing rock. Guys gave me a ride into town. Boy was I glad for that. On the way I found out that area is well-known for vehicles going off that hillside, guy says there are at least 4 that he knows of, and once they're down there, that's where they are because there is no getting them out. They dropped me off at the store and I called a wrecker, who never showed up (july 4...), called another one, several hours later he showed up and said where's it at. I told him and he says oh gosh there is no telling if it's possible to get it out. We get there and he hooked onto the side of it, yanked it upright, then I put the cable on the hitch and drug it up the hill to the road. One flat tire. Changed that (spare) and guess what? I hit the key, it coughed a little but fired right up. Drove it home too! It was trashed, frame bent, but the driver door worked and that's all I cared about.
I estimated my time of wreck to be about 0830, got to the store in town at just after noon (had to wait for people to come back from lunchbreak), then the 2nd wrecker showed up at exactly 1550. When I got back into my cark to drive off, the clock showed 1742. By time I got home, it was well after dark. Did not make it to work, but I did call em from the little store and explained that I had rolled my vehicle and they were fine with my not showing up. I had 17 payments left on the El Camino, and I made every one of them while I drove it, wrecked. It was certainly an attention getter in that condition. Sold it to the neighbor kid who pulled the 3.8 (chevy) V6 out of it and did a bunch of work to it and stuffed it into his El Camino (same Cruck) and honestly it was pretty darn fast. Cam heads lots of compression, lots of Brodix parts. Brodix ain't too far from here...
I've had bad days since but every time I go back to this memory and it reminds me, as bad as this day is, it could be worse.
Neighbor guy has a really high end hotrodded 300hp+ Can-Am side-by-side. He shows up last week and asks if I can work on his mower for him. Sure no problem what's wrong? Won't start. It was running, he parked it, next time he went to use it, smoke from exhaust tried to start but just won't. Ok fine bring it on. He drags it (seriously, drug it--park brake on the whole way) to the house behind the little IH Cub tractor, drops it and heads home. Both of the fuel tanks have diesel in them. I thought to myself man what an idio.......wait....if his gas can is full of diesel and he's only got one can, I better call him and warn him not to put that "gas" into the can-am, will destroy the engine. So I called him and told him. Today I get a text, says man you don't know how much I appreciate the heads-up with the gas can....that could have been really, really ugly. So when I seen the comment about "diesel" above, it made me think of this deal. it could have been worse. A lot worse, and I'm clearly happy that it wasn't.
