The Adventure Begins.........The Road Hits Back...Albuquerque......... the Damage

The Adventure Begins

Jesse was true to his word. At the first off ramp outside the construction zone, he pulled off Interstate 40 so we could refuel and check the damage to my rig. I already knew I had lost the lights on the fenders of both my truck and my horse trailer but other than that I had no idea what the damage might be.

That passenger side fender on my dually has been crunched a couple of times so I know from experience it doesn't take much to compromise the fiberglass. Whether or not hitting those sand filled pylons at 55 mph was enough to wreck that fender or not was in question. Although that fender "only" had small chunks out of it, as well as that broken light, I wasn't prepared for the rest of the damage to my rig.



It looked like someone or something had tried to rip my horse trailer fender right off the frame. The section of the trailer fender that attaches to the body of the horse trailer was peeled back and the fender itself was pushed into the tire, along with an assortment of dents and paint peels.

One side of the front of my horse trailer was caved in from the whiplash effect that resulted from my swerve to avoid hitting the pylons head on. The offending part of my truck, its bumper was crumpled up as well.

Then the off side of the horse trailer had an assortment of scrapes from tangling with the concrete Jersey barriers. Along with a crumple at the bottom back of the fender from hitting some kind of low spot in this process.

Structurally my horse trailer was still sound. However, we had to take a tire iron to raise the one bent fender up so it was no longer making contact with the tire. All in all, I probably got off easy considering what could have happened to me and my horses had I hit those pylons head on.

I probably should have been grateful.........BUT truthfully I was really pissed off. Mostly I was mad at the New Mexico DOT for setting up a traffic lane that was inherently unsafe, a speed limit that didn't fit the circumstances.......and at myself for trusting they knew what they were doing.....because obviously they DIDN'T. Then I was mad this trip just would NOT give me a break. Seemed like every time I turned around something else was smacking me down. AND thirdly I was mad I was in this mess ALONE! What was I thinking???????

If you're wondering by this time if I was thinking maybe I wasn't meant to be on this trip, the answer to that question would be an unequivocal yes. If it hadn't meant travelling alone without proper maps and such to get me there, I might just have been tempted to turn around and head home.

At this point the only thing keeping me moving on to Tulsa was my faith Jesse knew how to get there. My fear was bigger of being stranded somewhere alone than making it to the show. I wasn't even sure anymore if I'd get there in one piece.......but the odds that something more bad might happened seemed to be slim.........or at least, that's what I hoped because after our brief stop at this station, I was once again following Jesse down the road to Tulsa...............and the US All Arabian Half-Arabian National Horse Show. I mean really.........what could happen next?

To be continued.................

The Road Hits Back........Closing in on Tulsa

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