Author Topic: Road Trip.... (Read 349 times)

daveSanborn · « **on:** December, 22, 2008, 01:49:24 PM »

Well..... 29 year old son returned from working overseas on Friday night. SOB surprised me as he wasn't supposed to land here until Monday evening. It worked out good as it gave us the weekend plus all of last week to hang out. It was the first time he'd seen his '57 F100 and Exile cycle that he bought and had delivered to my house. We dicked around with the toys for most of the week and then my other son (Tim) flew in on Thursday with his fiance in tow. We took the fiance around the area (her first time leaving the frozen tundra of NH) and did some light partying in the evenings.

On Saturday morning, they were all supposed to pile into his F100 and head North up to NH. They ended up laying around all day and didn't get on the road until 6PM.... not the best time to be embarking on a 15 hour drive. Around 4AM on the NJ TurnPike they hit some black ice and after a few 70 MPH donuts did a Dale Earnheart into the concrete guardrail/barricade. Fortunately no-one was injured. With the F100's rear bumper sticking out into the RH lane, they exited the truck and then stood there and watched as an F250 repeated their ice dancing manuevers and slammed into DS of the F100's rear bumper. The corner of the heavy steel rear bumper is now located closer to the rearend housing than it's stock location. While on the phone with my son and just a couple minutes after the accident, he started screaming for everyone to get out of the way as a tractor trailer truck came through the area completely sideways. He said it was like some special effect out of an action movie. Miraculously, no-one was injured and the F100 and F250 narrowly avoided any further damage from the traffic that kept sliding on by. They stood on the side of the Turnpike and waited their turn as the TurnPike Authority slowly made their way through all of the accident sccenes. The truck was towed to an impound lot just off of exit 8.

Son #1, son #2, and my future daughter-in-law have been sitting in a Marriott hotel room since the accident. There are no available rental cars in the area due the holidays and I suppose other accidents like theirs. Daughter-in laws father is on his way down from NH to pick them up right now.

Dad (me) will be heading up to NJ on Friday with the car hauler to pick it up and bring it home where we can get it fixed. He was carrying full coverage on the truck. The NADA Average retail is $13k. The High retail is $26k. His truck didn't have a scratch on it and was in mint condition. It's very unlikely that the truck will be totalled.

Never a dull moment around here!

Fast68back · « **Reply #1 on:** December, 22, 2008, 02:16:12 PM »

That Sucks, Glad everyone was uninjured, other than the '57 of course.

joesgt281 · « **Reply #2 on:** December, 22, 2008, 02:32:07 PM »

Holy-freekin-moly!
That is some major suckage :doh
Glad to hear they're okay though.

shbrandt · « **Reply #3 on:** December, 22, 2008, 03:05:26 PM »

Dave, glad to hear everybody is safe and sound. Toys are easy to replace. We don't get much ice and snow here in central Texas, but about every five years or so we will get some. I learned how to drive on snow/ice because I was raised in the Texas panhandle and would see it 5-6 time every winter. Snow is ok if it not too deep, but if it is ice forget about it unless you have studded tires and four wheel drive and even then very very slowly on level surfaces. If you want a good laugh you should see the folks here drive when it does snow. First thing, they let out all the schools and businesses if they get even 1/2" of snow so everybody is on the road at the same time. Then because it is very hilly here in central Texas most folks end up in the ditch or having a highway demolition derby. It's a riot to watch. :show

Flysure1 · « **Reply #4 on:** December, 23, 2008, 07:24:14 AM »

I am glad it didn't turn out worse, its easier to fix vehicles thal people, they stand still for you even in pain, that runaway semi could have been trouble.

daveSanborn · « **Reply #5 on:** December, 28, 2008, 01:49:18 PM »

Successful trip. We got on the road at 0315 on Friday, arrived at the impound lot around 1300, got the truck loaded up onto the car trailer and arrived back home at 0200 on Saturday. It was a very long day/drive.... almost 1200 miles. I slept like a rock as soon as my head hit the pillow, but woke up at 0930 (WTF?). I needed to get some things done anyway on Saturday, but I was hoping I'd get a little more sleep than that.

I dropped the F100 off at a local restoration shop. None of the auto body/collision shops wanted anything to do with fixing it. The front and rear hits on the truck are much less than what I was expecting. I forgot to take pictures of the truck, but I'll get some before work commences.