The Great Wood Expedition

On Saturday, Robert, Britain and I were up at 5 am to head out to get some more firewood. Some of our really good friends run a Methodist Summer Camp in the Sawtooth mountains by Fairfield. They cleared about 20 acres this summer for a firebreak and offered some of the wood to us. Originally I was going by myself with Derek and Rachel Cheney coming along to help, but on Friday Robert found out he didn't have to work on Saturday and was able to go with us.

We got to the camp about 9:15 and talk with Karen, Dave and their daughter Lori for a few minutes before heading out to get the wood. We lucked out in that most of the wood was already cut and we just had to load it in the trailer. After all the wood was loaded, we went back to their cabin for some hot chocolate and cider before heading home. It was great to hang out with our friends again, we just haven't been able to much since Karen and I quit teaching together.

Coming home was long and stressful. We left the camp close to 1:00. The first 25 miles leading out of the camp are dirt roads and so we ended up going really slow with the loaded trailer over these roads. Once we got on the paved roads, we were able to go faster but not by much. Anytime our speed was above 45-50 the trailer would start to fishtail and the ride was very jerky. Somewhere between Fairfield and Mountain Home we heard a pop and pulled over to see what happened. Apparently the leaf spring broke on the right side of the trailer. Now if you are like me and have no idea what that is, Rob said that is has to do with the suspension on the axle. Now that doesn't to good does it. So we said a prayer and hoped for the trailer holding out until we could get home.

We limped along to Mountain Home where we got a very late lunch/early dinner about 4:30. We then said another prayer and headed out for home. Since we didn't know any back roads between Mt. Home and Boise we had to use the interstate and we still could only go about 45-50 or the trailer would fishtail. We finally made it home about 6:00 and breathe a sigh of relief and a prayer of thanks. The trip that usually takes about 3 hours took 5 1/2. We were very glad to be out of the car. We then spent some time unloading the trailer and splitting some of the wood. It was a very long day and we were grateful to go to bed that night!