gornoman
Well-Known Member
It was a beautiful Friday morning when Scot (essness) showed up at 6:00 am.
We got the second cart loaded up and hit the road.
30 miles south we blew a trailer tire under my cart. Pulled over on the shoulder, sprang into action, and had a new spare dogged down in under 10 minutes. Spent the next 2-3 hours getting off the highway and going into towns to try and find a replacement spare for the balance of the trip. Finally, we scored a fresh tire in Lafayette, IN. continued on, drove all afternoon without a care.
BAM! Second flat! Under my cart, AGAIN! Starting to see the pattern here?
This damage has rendered the trailer inoperable. We are screwed, 70 miles from our hotel in London, and it's getting dark!
...we abandoned the trailer and carts on the shoulder, and get off at Exit 115 turning directly into an Embassy Suites Hotel. Scot is a Gold Member (or something) and asks the front desk for a wireless passcode so he can get online and fire the first flare. We now have guys from across the country trying to help us from their computers and cell phones. Scot is working a laptop and 2 cell phones, I have a cell phone and a beer. Scot is my hero!
We come up with a plan to phone ahead to our hotel in London and see if anyone down there can save us. Instead of calling them direct, I call my youngest daughter back home. She is a front desk manager in a Hilton property, and our London hotel is a Hilton property. This strategy really worked great because in about 15 minutes we have a committment from some incredible carters in London to empty their trailer and come 70+ miles north and rescue us. At the exact second we got that info, Scot made a deal with the tow company to transport the carts to London. Giving them the damaged trailer was part of the deal. I thanked Melissa greatly, and we headed back to the carts to await the tow truck.
.....the truck showed up quite promptly, we loaded up the carts, shook hands and headed south to London. The carts arrived, we unloaded without incident and gave one of the fellers a ride around the lot on a yellow sparky. He thought it was really cool. I was glad they were going away...
The next morning I'm eating breakfast in the hotel (next to one of the founders of Alltrax, who I met and don't remember his name) and a fella comes in and says "Anyone here named Gorno?"
Next thing I know, we have a way to transport the carts to the Bonanza. They were the same folks who were willing to come north last night! Hell YEAH we need a transport, thank you very much! They went to the dragstrip (8 miles) grabbed their empty trailer, and brought it back to us in London. We loaded the carts (AGAIN!) and drove to London Dragway.
We were having a great morning at the event, but Scot left the grounds to go see if he could scout up a way for us to get home with the carts. Tried some rental joints, nothing appropriate, tried some places like Lowes and Tractor Supply, nope. Then he found a trailer sales lot and pulled in. He scored a real nice, brand new trailer, made the deal, and brought it back to the track. We continued our day in a good mood as we thought we were in the clear....
We got the second cart loaded up and hit the road.
30 miles south we blew a trailer tire under my cart. Pulled over on the shoulder, sprang into action, and had a new spare dogged down in under 10 minutes. Spent the next 2-3 hours getting off the highway and going into towns to try and find a replacement spare for the balance of the trip. Finally, we scored a fresh tire in Lafayette, IN. continued on, drove all afternoon without a care.
BAM! Second flat! Under my cart, AGAIN! Starting to see the pattern here?
This damage has rendered the trailer inoperable. We are screwed, 70 miles from our hotel in London, and it's getting dark!
...we abandoned the trailer and carts on the shoulder, and get off at Exit 115 turning directly into an Embassy Suites Hotel. Scot is a Gold Member (or something) and asks the front desk for a wireless passcode so he can get online and fire the first flare. We now have guys from across the country trying to help us from their computers and cell phones. Scot is working a laptop and 2 cell phones, I have a cell phone and a beer. Scot is my hero!
We come up with a plan to phone ahead to our hotel in London and see if anyone down there can save us. Instead of calling them direct, I call my youngest daughter back home. She is a front desk manager in a Hilton property, and our London hotel is a Hilton property. This strategy really worked great because in about 15 minutes we have a committment from some incredible carters in London to empty their trailer and come 70+ miles north and rescue us. At the exact second we got that info, Scot made a deal with the tow company to transport the carts to London. Giving them the damaged trailer was part of the deal. I thanked Melissa greatly, and we headed back to the carts to await the tow truck.
.....the truck showed up quite promptly, we loaded up the carts, shook hands and headed south to London. The carts arrived, we unloaded without incident and gave one of the fellers a ride around the lot on a yellow sparky. He thought it was really cool. I was glad they were going away...
The next morning I'm eating breakfast in the hotel (next to one of the founders of Alltrax, who I met and don't remember his name) and a fella comes in and says "Anyone here named Gorno?"
Next thing I know, we have a way to transport the carts to the Bonanza. They were the same folks who were willing to come north last night! Hell YEAH we need a transport, thank you very much! They went to the dragstrip (8 miles) grabbed their empty trailer, and brought it back to us in London. We loaded the carts (AGAIN!) and drove to London Dragway.
We were having a great morning at the event, but Scot left the grounds to go see if he could scout up a way for us to get home with the carts. Tried some rental joints, nothing appropriate, tried some places like Lowes and Tractor Supply, nope. Then he found a trailer sales lot and pulled in. He scored a real nice, brand new trailer, made the deal, and brought it back to the track. We continued our day in a good mood as we thought we were in the clear....