We seem to have an affinity for adventures with trailer hitches.
We drove home from Davis yesterday -- towing the U Haul trailer, empty but rattling and bouncing around. Almost to Marin county (on highway 37) we heard this screech and then a very different motion from the trailer; Alan pulls off the road to investigate. YUP. Somehow the trailer hitch had worked loose from the car and dropped on the road. The chains held the trailer to the car (just as designed.) But now what?? This was the same trailer hitch we have used for thousands of miles, so we aren't sure how it worked loose.
We walked along the road looking for the pin (that holds the hitch into the car). The pin is the size of a large finger. No luck. So Alan disconnects the chains, we put rocks around the trailer wheels and he drives to a car parts store in Novato. I stay with the U Haul. I walk the road again as there is a wide shoulder; and then sit on the guardrail near an over crossing. Maybe 15 minutes later, a CHP car drives up and parks behind the trailer. Someone driving by had called the situation in.
The CHPer wanted to know the story. "Are you sure he is coming back?"
Well, I respond, I'm pretty sure.
"OK, then come sit with me in the cruiser and we will wait for him to return."
Golly, I say, this is one life experience I never wanted to have -- sitting in the back seat of a CHP cruiser.
"Don't worry, you are not in hand cuffs!"
UM.
We make small talk; he calls in to the dispatch unit and describes the situation. I'm an "xray" in the back seat!
About 10 minutes pass and Alan drives up. With a new trailer pin. Gets the trailer hitch back in the car; we lift the trailer tongue onto the hitch; replace the chains....and off we go.
Checking in at the U Haul place was easy. Sure, everything was fine until the trailer came off the car! But there was no damage to the trailer and only a bent metal rod under the car. So -- good to go.
Finally home and we get to read the Sunday paper. All in a day's adventure.
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