The Things You See on Highways

14 November 2010 2 Comments

Yesterday, I found $4.86 in the washer after doing a load of clothes. Since I never carry cash, this is something of a miracle. Where did this $4.86 come from, and what does it signify?

In case it signifies better things to come, I spent the day window shopping for trucks, trailers, and multi-million dollar facilities. In the event that random change keeps showing up in my washing machine, I want to be prepared. It’s important to figure out what I will buy with my new-found wealth.

There are, of course, many ways to window shop. Visiting dealerships. Browsing the web. Driving on the highways and ogling everyone else’s trucks. And trailers.

Or trailer.

Specifically, a one-horse trailer that looked like something I would put together.

For people who have not been following the blog for any length of time, that was not a compliment. My mechanical abilities are… lacking. Entirely. Spectacularly. Electric drills confuse me, and it goes downhill from there.

I’m not sure how to describe this.

Imagine someone led a horse onto a piece of plywood and cobbled together some solid metal walls that went up about as far as the horse’s chest. Now imagine they realized they would need a roof, so they added some posts at the corners and added stock trailer-ish slats on the two long sides. Then they added a gate behind and tarped the top. With canvas. Who needs a waterproof roof, anyway?

If you’ve been paying attention, you realize the horse’s head and neck are currently having over a chest-high wall with nothing containing it. That’s ok—the trailer owner caught that, too. And built a box around the head and neck. And added a second tarp over the head and neck box.

I can only assume they didn’t want to waste the metal that would be required to make the trailer longer overall or something, so they just built it around the horse, in the shape of the horse. But don’t worry—the horse had at least 6” on any side of him to move around, and that’s plenty, right?

Then the trailer builder put the whole contraption on a single axle, hitched it up, and headed down the road.

The horse was a whole lot calmer than I would have been riding in that thing. Or else it was afraid to move and risk knocking off one of the walls.

I don’t have photos of the actual trailer, but it generally looked something like this.

Only it wasn’t quite so classy or solid looking.

Actually, I should have flagged down the driver. It was probably worth about $4.86.

Horses and Riding, Generally Horse Related

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