From Outta Nowhere!

On the way back from Burningman we where hit by a drunk driver. Fortunately everyone walked away from the accident. It could have turned out so much worse. It happened on Friday evening (9/1) outside of Crescent Lake, OR on Hwy 58. We had been stopped at a traffic revision light (the two lane highway was closed down to one lane, and there was a traffic light at each end of the section regulating east/west bound traffic). We were stopped for about 2-3 minutes when out of no where we heard screeching tires. There was just enough time for Kirk and I to look at each other, and for Kirk to yell "what the hell?", then BAM!! We were pretty jarred for at first, as we asked ourselves if this had really happened. I checked myself for injuries, nothing but a sore neck from the whiplash movement. Then I was pissed… I jumped out of the car and stormed back to the rear of the truck/tent trailer to see who/what the hell hit us. I found a second gen Toyota pickup with it's front bumper deeply lodged into the back of my newly remodeled tent trailer. At the moment I was fuming, I just wanted to punch this jerk in the face and verbally rip him a new one. Somehow I managed to keep my cool and politely ask the driver (a late 20's/early 30's Hispanic man) if he was okay. He said that he was okay, and asked if we should pull the vehicles off to the shoulder of the road. I quickly surveyed the damaged to the trailer and blazer and they appeared to be in operational order, at least enough to backup and pull off the road. I asked the other driver for his information, and attempted to copy it down, but I was just too shook up and angered by the incident. I asked Kirk to take over, while I stormed off and had a smoke. Then the other guy has the nerve to ask me for the cigarette. "Come on! You just took the ass end of my trailer off, and now you want a smoke. Damn man!" I gave him a smoke anyhow. The trailer just looked horrid, back end smashed in about 3 ft. and the trailers rear bumper was smashed in and twisted up like an old thorn bush. I wasn't sure if this thing would even be towable. The life saving item I believe was that Justen and I had swapped out my old 1.25 in. tow receiver for a full size 2 in. This baby held like a tank. Nearly no damage to my rear-end, just a bent hitch insert. If I had left the small hitch on it would have busted for sure. Then only God knows what would have happened then. With a propane tank and large deep cell marine battery mounted on the front of the trailer, and by rear gas tank nestled behind the tow package, it would have had all the ingredients necessary for a good explosion. I've heard horror stories about this type of thing.

After we finished swapping information I decided to call 911 for a tow, as I didn't think I was going to be able to tow the trailer out of there. Good thing I had some cell service. I talked to the operator, and then a police dispatcher. Kirk managed to flag down a trucker and get the approx mile marker for our location. The dispatcher said they would send out a tow truck. Barely even a minute later a police officer pulls up with his lights on. I turned to Kirk and said "Damn that is some fast service". I talked briefly with the officer and explained the situation. He immediately took the other guy aside and asked him how much he had to drink tonight. The guy disputed that he had drank anything, but a second later the officer found an open beer in the truck's cup holder. "What's this?" He then administered a sobriety test, which the guy failed, and arrested him. Two more cop cars arrived and administered a breathalyser test, which I can only assume he also failed as he wasn't released from cuffs and his comfy looking rear patrol car seat.

While all that was going on I found that the trailer damage while enough to total the trailer, wasn't enough that it needed to be towed. I found a second tow hitch insert in my truck (I borrowed one from my neighbor, because I couldn't remove the ball from mine, so that I could turn over the 2 in. drop insert into a 2 in. rise insert). The tow truck that arrived to tow off the drunk drivers truck said that if installed that 2 in. drop hitch and was able to follow him 4 miles to his shop, he could swap it over for me. After the officer gave me a copy of the paperwork and headed out, I installed the 2 in. drop hitch. It was just enough to get us up the road to the tow shop. They quickly swapped over the hitch for me at no cost (which was greatly appreciated), however I gave them a $20 tip for the work. Kirk and I reinstalled it and we were off.

The rest of the ride to Eugene went quickly. Kirk and I were gitty from the shock of the event. It's like when you hit rock bottom and you have no where to go, you just don't care. Kirk mentioned that aliens could land right then and there and abduct us and he wouldn't think it was unusual. This was definitely the last crazy incident in an epic road trip adventure. It's been a little over a week now. I've been dealing with the aftermath of this accident almost everyday. I've had to coordinate with my insurance, the other guys insurance (I'm so thankful he actually has legitimate insurance), my medical insurance, etc. I have some neck and back pains as a result of the accident. My doctor recommended physical therapy, which I've been evaluated for. So for the next month at least I'll be going to physical therapy three times a week to ensure that my neck muscles heal properly. I did finally get an adjuster to come out and look at my truck, not a whole lot of damage, but I'm being adequately compensated for. I'm still working with them to get reimbursed for the damages to the trailer, for some reason they have to get some regional person to evaluate it. I'm also supposed to be compensated for pain/suffering once I finish my medical treatments. Hopefully this will all be taken care of and finalized soon, so everyone can put it behind them.