The skies turned gray shortly after we hit the highway. No more than 15 miles down the road, we caught a surprise hailstorm! Normally, we’ll catch some rain first and then it will progressively get worse until hail falls, but not this time. Just hail out of nowhere, beating down on us until we took refuge at a nearby gas station. It rained on us off and on throughout the trip, all the way until we reached the dirt road leading to the gates at Merus.
I called it a dirt road, and usually it is, but not this time. It was a mud bog. Slippery, wet, sludgy mud! I was trying to maintain a constant speed, sludging through the mud, trying my best to keep the truck on the road and out of the ditch. The trailer, however, had a different idea. I think the problem was that the water tank was empty, and trailer was just to light to track straight behind the truck on that slick surface. I was only driving maybe 20mph, but the trailer was swinging side to side so bad, that it was pulling the rear end of my truck. I didn’t want to stop and risk sinking into the soft road anymore, but I had to slow it down enough to control the trailer. I continued down the road, hitting a bump here and there, focused on staying on the road, and keeping the trailer in line. At some point, one of the rubber straps holding my mountain bike to the rack mounted on the tongue of the trailer popped off, and my bike dropped down to the ground. Only attached by the front tire, the rear drug in the mud, barley in view of the side mirror. Once I noticed it, I immediately stopped the truck, and hopped out to access the damage. About 4 inches of caked mud, a ripped seat and some scratches, but overall, she was ok. So, there I am, getting soaked by the rain, sliding around in the mud, trying to reattach my bike to the rack. I finally got her back on, hopped in the rig and continued down the road, ready to set up camp and get out of the wet clothes!
