Pacific to Atlantic and back - Part 2
For those of you just joining this discussion, you can catch up by looking at Pacific to Atlantic and back - Part 1.
When I left you last we were in Kernersville, NC having just spent Christmas and New Years with my son and his family and our three grandchildren. My story finds us on Jan 2, 2007 preparing to leave for the next leg of our trip, hopefully, to spend some time on the South Atlantic coast. We thought we were quite smug in that my Son's house is on a corner with a removable fence section that allowed us to pull the TM into the back yard and backing it into a corner near the inground swimming pool that had just been installed. When we put the TM into the yard the ground was mainly dry and the only grass that had been disturbed was the area immediatley adjacent to the pool and the concrete pool deck. The contractor had just graded the area in preparation for reseeding the lawn. We were also close to electricity and water hookups from the house. We thought it was pretty cool to get up each morning and look out at sparkling swimming pool, have our coffee and prepare for the day with the kids and grand kids.
We got some heavy rain just a day or two before we were ready to leave but I still didn't think too much of getting the trailer out as my Pilot is all wheel drive and has an ability to lock all four wheels when operating in snow or mud. Well, let me tell you HOW WRONG I WAS! We closed up the trailer, I brought it the pilot and got all hooked up. In order to get out of the yard I had to pull forward turning right, straighten out as best I could then back the trailer out the gate and into the street. I was all right for about 20 feet untill the right trailer wheel sunk in mud nearly to the axle. We got out the shovels, boards, and some concrete pavers in order to get some traction surface which we were able to do. I was able to move forward and turn right and get the unit straight ready to back out. But every time I tried to back up the Pilot would start to jack knife and all four wheels would spin in that red, slimey, North Carolina clay. Mud was everywhere at least four inches thick and sticking out over the four tires of the pilot and my boots by that time must have weighed 10 pounds each. And of course I would move a little then get out, look things over make corrections with boards and pavers and then get back into the car carrying in pounds of that mud which soon was everywhere in the inside drivers side of the car. My son was helping and suggested we hook a tow line on the back of the trailer or to the axle and stretch it out to the street where he could hook it to his 4 X 4 and pull out both the trailer and my car. My TM doesn' really have an attach point on the real and I really didn't want to put any undue stress on the axle so we went to plan B. Keep in mind we had been at this for a couple hours by this time.
Plan B was to disconnect the trailer from the Pilot, move the pilot forward, then with boards (2x6's) under the tongue wheel, spin the TM around 180 degrees so that we could actually get his truck connected to the hitch ball and pull it out. After several times of the tongue wheel slipping off the boards and burying itself in 4 inches of mud, then using a hydraulic jack and blocks we'd raise it back up, get a new board under it and move some more. An hour later we had it turned around. My son Backed his 4 x 4 in we hooked up the TM and fortunately he had enough traction on his front drive wheels to get it moving and was able to pull it out through the gate to street. I backed the Pilot out with no problem now that there was nothing to push. We hooked up again to the pilot on the street and we were finally on our way, four hours after we started. As we slowly drove away the mud that was caked all over our tires was thrown off and covered the front of the TM. When we pulled into Myrtle Beach, SC KOA that night you wouldn't believe the looks we got. Fortunately, it had rained on the way down and much of the mud washed off but the inside of the Pilot would carry the evidence of that day until we arrived home nearly three weeks later.
I'm going to end this part for the time being and start up a Part 3 thread later where I will talk about the wonderful, intresting places we stayed and we worked our way down the South Atlantic Coast. Stay tuned.
Dan
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. Four hours to get onto the street! 
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