What A Shock

It was a weekday in late March, 2018 and I needed to get my taxes to my tax preparer which was a good 20+ miles from where I live. It wasn’t yet Spring in New England, so there was still a chill in the air. I drove the back roads, which are beautiful any time of the year, and, given a choice, I would choose them 99% of the time. It took around 45 minutes. I handed my stack of documents to my preparer and back to my car I went. I was waiting for traffic to allow me to pull out into the busy road when a small car towing an open trailer passed me by. I’ve seen cars pulling a trailer this size a million times before, mostly hauling landscaping debris to the dump, but this was different. Most people would smile, laugh, maybe point it out to someone they are with, but not me. I had a mission to complete.

“Mission: Catch Up to That Trailer” had bumped whatever was next on my calendar to a later slot. This was important. Whatever it was would have to wait.

I kept moving closer to the trailer as we traveled through red and green lights alike and automobiles between us turned off the path the trailer and I were taking. Who knows where the trailer was heading, but I was determined to follow it as far as I needed to go. For what had seemed like many hours and many miles, but in reality was around 12 minutes and 4.5 miles, the destination of the trailer was reached. A gas station. One with a car wash. A self-serving car wash. The car pulled through the wash bay and parked so that it’s cargo could get the wash.

I parked my car off to the side, as to not be in anyone’s way and I jumped out and headed for the driver, who had gotten out and was headed for the wash bay to clean his cargo. I was able to reach him before he had paid the fee that would have started the clock on the wash time limit. I said “Hey, can I get a picture of your shock absorber?” Yes, it was a shock absorber alright, but this one was 25 feet long and 10 feet high. A Monroe promotional shock absorber that’s heading off to an event at an automobile parts store. The driver agreed to my request, but suggested that I wait until it’s nice and clean. And so I did. Once clean I got my shot. The driver said that he was here for a couple hours and then heading to the shock absorber’s home in Illinois.

I would have followed it to Illinois if necessary.