Texas. March 2010.
After spending an awful winter in Iowa, freezing our butts
off, we got the call that we were going to work in Texas. The technicians there quit abruptly, leaving the
hearing van at the Amarillo airport.
I was informed by the manager of the fleet department that
we would need to remove the tailgate from a Ford F-350 dually pickup
truck. I laughed. “me and Lora? …2 girls?” I laughed
again. He told me that we would have to
find someone to help us. There were no
further instructions. We had absolutely
no idea how one goes about removing a tailgate from a pickup truck.
The problem with the tailgate was that the trailer hookup
was a fifth wheel in the bed of the pickup, and there was not good clearance
between the tailgate and the doghouse of the trailer. In order for us to be able to leave the
trailer at job sites and drive the pickup for personal use the tailgate would need
to be removed or be at risk of damaging the tailgate or the hearing van.
We flew to Dallas, there to change planes and fly to
Amarillo. At Dallas, they wanted us to
give up our seats on the booked flight for the “bonus” $400 credit to fly another
day, and they would get us to Amarillo the next day. I refused because our checked bags were going
to Amarillo without us, and I wasn’t going to spend the night without my
luggage. This was the middle of a long travel day for us, and I just didn’t
want to deal with this.
Flying into Amarillo we looked out of the airplane windows,
hoping that we would see the hearing van parked at the airport. No luck, we didn’t fly over the parking area. We collected our checked bags and set out for
the parking lot, wondering just how far we would have to drag all of our
stuff. We were discussing this when I
saw an airport police officer. I asked
him if he happened to know where we could find a large pickup truck with a
trailer attached to it – and he knew where it was! Way out at the far end of the parking lot, and
which way we needed to go to get there. One problem solved.
later that March, somewhere in North Texas
We got in the hearing van, inspected the situation, and secured our luggage in there, then headed to the hotel. Parking at the hotel was not optimal… we pulled in and thought we would wait for morning to try to negotiate the narrow driveway around the back of the building. Checked in to our rooms, but the need to move the vehicle into position for ease of leaving in the morning nagged at me, along with the problem of how to remove the tailgate from the pickup truck.
I went out and walked around the hotel to see what that driveway
around the building looked like. It was
going to be a slow go. Rather than
struggle in the early morning hours I decided to get the vehicle around the
building and positioned for a quick getaway.
The driveway was not actually wide enough, and the trailer/van wound up
over the curb in the dirt, but I made it around the building.
As I checked my parking job, and made sure everything was
secure another Ford dually pickup truck arrived in the parking lot. I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask… so I
approached the man and explained that we needed to know exactly how to remove a
tailgate… and the gentleman kindly demonstrated on his own vehicle by showing
me what we would need to do to release the tailgate. (It never hurts to ask.)
The next morning, we arrived at the job site with time to
spare, and little Lora (all of 5’3” and probably 100 pounds soaking wet) and I unhooked
the trailer from the truck with the tailgate open, as she held it so that it
would not slam down or hit the trailer. Lora
stood by while I lifted the tailgate slightly to release the side cables. Then we lifted the tailgate as if to close it
and released the cable – just like the man at the hotel had demonstrated for
me. Voila! The tailgate was released
from the back of the truck. The two of
us lugged that heavy tailgate up into the trailer, and stuck it in the doghouse/closet,
and that was the beginning of our grand Texas adventures.
with photoshopped horns at our hotel in April
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What I like about Texas
