Home at last

I'm in a bit of shock at the moment, but it seems that we actually managed to get our new trailer home!  The trip wasn't without a bit of stress - something I'm getting used to these days.

The electrics on our Durango were rewired and working fine, and when we hooked up the trailer everything worked - sort of.  If you held the connection just so.  Every light worked, but  unfortunately the connection was just a bit dodgy and my guess is the first pebble we drove over knocked it loose.  What it left NOT working were the taillights - of course.

Did I mention it was pouring rain today?

Figures.  The one thing that shortens daylight and otherwise makes driving a bit stressful decided to show up the first time I towed a trailer.  Thanks rain, at least you're watering my garden!

Anyhow, we got the trailer hooked up and ready to roll - and headed for our first stop just a mile or so away.  The Shell station, to add air to the tires and check the lights.

Oh.

The lights.  The lights that we got to work just fine when we were sitting in one spot, but which decided to stop working the minute we ran over a pebble.  See!  They're working!

And then they stopped.  Probably two seconds after we started driving.  We knew this was probably the case, but we started for home - it was still light and we wanted to get home as quickly as we could!

We also forgot to put the temporary towing mirrors on (too excited), so I didn't have the best visibility.  We drove quite a ways, but it kept getting darker and darker and eventually somebody flashed us to let us know out lights were out.  We made it to our exit from I-5, and stopped on the shoulder to try and straighten things out.  It was raining, and quickly became clear that the only way to keep the lights on was for Michael to hold the connection in place.  Since it wouldn't be acceptable for him to ride on the hitch, we had to come up with another solution.

HAZARD LIGHTS!

We drove the rest of the way home (as it got darker, and darker) with the hazard lights on.  The brake lights worked too, and so did the turn signals (as long as the hazards weren't on).  Michael coached me on when to switch the hazards on and off, and provided general driving tips.  He's really good with things like that.

And it was still raining like mad.

We finally pulled into our front yard, and I was able to sigh a HUGE sigh of relief.  Michael will be able to fix the electric connection easily.

I'm exhausted.

THREE WEEKS UNTIL WE LEAVE FOR YELLOWSTONE.