The "infamous Idaho trip of '10" - Part I

Wednesday, September 22:

I woke up feeling like crap, but made my way into work. Wisely, while at work, I did not eat anything. Later that afternoon I went and loaded up Flash and hit the road, headed for Farmer's.... aka Pit Stop #2.

Pit Stop #1 was at Harbor Freight in Salem to buy magnetic lights for the trailer. Getting them hooked up and on the trailer took some time...

Pretty ghetto looking... But then again, my trailer is not super-spiffy anyway.

Just ignore the rust...

And after all was said and done, I had to run back in to the store and buy an extender.

Soooo close... but not quite enough wire.

Once I got everything plugged in I tested it out and... they didn't work right. DAMN!! 

And not only that, I pinched the crap out of my hand and bled all over...

So I took everything back off the trailer and stowed the magnetics in the truck to be worked on later. I then decided I was feeling well enough to eat, so I grabbed some food and hit the road again heading towards Pit Stop #2. 

On the way I had to stop twice to get rid of the food that was in my stomach. Flash kept asking if we were there yet. I had to explain to him that this was not our final destination.

Finally I made it to Farmer's and was never so glad to pull into a driveway... until Farmer came out, that is. Apparently my timing sucked. He looked like a whirlwind running around trying to gather up dogs... I just stood still trying not to get in the way of whatever it was I had just walked into. Eventually I got Flash unloaded and in a pen with hay and then finally I felt it was safe to say hi. By then most of the commotion had settled down. We went inside to chat and then it happened again... I was so nauseous that I was having a hard time keeping up my end of the conversation. Finally I gave up and went to bed. At about 3am I broke into a hard-core sweat and actually felt much better.

Thursday, September 23:

At 6am I got up and Farmer and I got to work. Farmer swapped out the belts and I tried to get the magnetic lights working again.

He succeeded and I failed... miserably. So I turned over the lighting project to him and true to form he totally McGuyvered it. He ended up bypassing the plug harness and wiring directly into the truck... even popping off the left light cover and connecting directly into that to get that blinker working. It was pretty awesome. I would have never thought of that... 

By then, ex-hub had arrived and it was time to hit the road. 

For the most part the drive through Oregon went smoothly. Then we crossed into Idaho and it all started to go wrong. About a half-hour out of Twin Falls I noticed that the lights weren't working again and there was something flapping around on the side of the trailer. When I pulled over I saw that the wires had gotten pinched and had come apart. I had dragged both ends down the highway. It was a mess. I tied up all the loose wires and we found a Cal-Ranch in Burley... which was a pain in the ass to get to because there was ridiculous construction everywhere. 

I managed to get the lights strung back together, but when I tested them out I had blinkers and brake lights but no running lights. CRAP!! Oh well, at that point I just decided to go for it. After all, it was an almost full moon and my trailer is white. If they ran into me it was probably going to happen with or without lights. 

At one point I hit a good bump and they came on. Then I hit another bump and they went off. It was hit or miss the rest of the night... 

Finally we arrived at our destination... Pocatello. 

I was not glad to see Pocatello again, but I was glad to see a bed. I was pooped...