Good-bye to the Thirty Foot Trailer

The Thirty-Foot Trailer

Sandpoint, Idaho

2/5/2015

Goodbye to the tent and the old caravan
To the Tinker, the Gypsy, the Travelin' Man
And goodbye to the thirty-foot trailer
    --Ewan McColl

To hear Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger sing this ballad, click here.

When we bought the new house in 2012, Kevin decided he absolutely had to have a tractor, so he searched and searched and found one in Spokane, Washington which he bought.  Now when you buy something 150 miles away, you have to get it home somehow.  And a tractor isn't something that you're going to want to drive all the way from Spokane, Washington to Wild Horse Plains, Montana.  No, you're going to want to put it on a trailer and bring it home behind the trusty F350 diesel.  Goes without saying.  And since you'll probably want to be able to transport the thing around the countryside, you'll probably want to own the trailer as well.  So sure enough, not only did we now own a beautiful red F350 diesel pickup, but a Big Bubba flatbed trailer and what I came to call Kevin's Tonka Toy.

Kevin's Tonka Toy

at home

October 18, 2012

I know Kevin plowed our driveway at least a couple times with his Tonka Toy, and we moved my '48 Frazer, and both Triumphs from Missoula to Plains on the bed of the trailer, but it wasn't long before Kevin realized that the big Cat was really overkill for our needs, so he sold it to a farmer from the Golden Triangle area of central Montana, and got a removable blade installed on the front of the F350, and that's what we've used for plowing ever since.

We kept the trailer though, partly with the thought that when (not IF) I get the Frazer running properly, we could use the trailer to haul the car around to shows throughout the Northwest.  But it's now over two years later, and the trailer has just been sitting in the driveway all this time, and frankly, it's so high that I'm afraid of loading and unloading the Frazer (which still isn't running properly).  So Kevin decided we really didn't need the trailer after all.  Now we've sold a lot of stuff through Craig's List--that's how we got rid of the Tonka Toy, after all, and my F250 and camper, for that matter.  But the trailer, while it garnered a lot of interest, it was only this week that someone finally got interested enough to actually buy the thing.  So yesterday morning, Kevin hooked up the trailer and we took off for Sandpoint, Idaho where we would meet the new owner who comes from near the Canadian Border north of Bonner's Ferry.

The Eastern End of Lake Pend Oreille

Largest Lake in Idaho

Near Hope, Idaho

February 5th, 2015

Now I don't go anywhere without my camera at hand, so even though it was raining hard, the camera and a couple of lenses went into my travel bag, along with the tripod and my GPS unit.  The weather, however, wasn't terribly conducive to good photography, so the camera stayed in the bag until we got to Sandpoint and parked the trailer.  It was at that point that I noticed that the lens I use for 95%+ of my photography was not on the camera.  Nor was it in the bag.  No, it was home on the organ bench where I'd placed it when I was playing with a variety of lenses, shooting out the picture window.  No biggie, you might think, except that the lens I usually use allows for wide angle photography, and the ones I had with me were telephoto lenses.  Thus I couldn't get a decent picture of the trailer in all its glory, because I had to back half-way across the parking lot just to get the trailer in the frame.  This is why I'll never be a professional photographer.  I forget to check the essentials before leaving home.

In Sandpoint we had lunch with our friend Doug Jones, then started back home.  I hadn't asked Kevin to stop on the way west as I knew we were on a time schedule, having agreed to meet the buyer at a specified time.  Besides, the conditions just weren't very good.  On the way home, however, I did attempt a few shots, including the view of the lake above.  Not a lot of contrast due to the cloudy, rainy conditions, but I loved the patterns of the snow on the rock face of the mountains across the lake.  I also pulled out the GPS unit once we got to Clark Fork, and we did stop for one cache, but alas, I kept going in circles, and didn't find the hidden treasure--leaving it for another, sunnier, warmer day.

Studebaker 2R Pickup (1949-1953?)

Near Noxon, Montana

February 5th, 2015

There were three scenes I wanted to capture once we were back in Montana, including a beautiful old barn near Heron, an early 1950s Studebaker pickup near Noxon, and a 1955 Dodge near Thompson Falls.  Kevin obligingly stopped for all three, and I'm happy with both the pickup and the Dodge, but I'll go back to Heron to capture that barn on a sunnier day.  All told it was a fun day, if not terribly productive.  But we were able to say good-bye to the thirty foot trailer.

1955 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer

Near Thompson Falls, Montana

February 5th, 2015