[arniland]

About a decade ago we were on a cross country drive to visit out kids in the northwest and go up into Canada to pick up an antique car. We were towing a 20 foot box trailer. We had decided to stop and pay a get-to-meet visit with the parents of my son's then fiance. These folks lived in an upscale gated community outside of St. Louis and we had been told that there was NO overnight trailer parking allowed. We would have to put the rig on the drive beside the house.

We arrive and the family came out on the porch to watch as DW jumped out of the cab with a walkie talkie and positioned herself down the drive to provide feedback. I deftly wipped the trailer around the large oak tree beside the top of the drive and down the two one foot wide concrete paths. I never even came close to putting a wheel off of the concrete and was feeling pretty smug as I very slowly backed the final few feet to my wife repeated "you're doing good, keep coming" over the radio. Just as I was about where I wanted to be there was a loud BANG!! with a shock to the trailer. I pulled up a foot or so and jumped out to see what I had hit. Turns out that the house was cantilevered out over the drive. Lois had never thought to look up.

No harm, no foul. Didn't chip the brick facade on the house and just put a little bend on the aluminum gutter over the rear door of the trailer.

That evening we took a walk and I called our son in Seattle to confess what had transpired. His only question was "Did you hurt the house?" Forget my trailer. ;-)

Arn