Our Trip Over Donner Summit about 1957
Written for (Historical Museum-Donner Summit)
What I wouldn't give to be able to go stay a summer up at the Summit and spook around with a backpack and whatnot! Yah willing, I am planning on it! I am a writer and an artist and am totally inspired by the Donner Summit area. My Pop was an enthusiast when young, he and my Mom used to hire horses even, and camp all over the Sierras; and my Mom used to be one of the best skiers up there somewhere, for real. She worked and skied at Yosemite too!
My Auntie Bonnie used to live in Truckee later on after my Mom had kids and gave up skiing. Bonnie used to send us Xmas trees every winter, and we would go down to the Millbrae Station and pick it up off one of those incredibly huge and fascinating old STEAM engine trains! I feel privileged that I got to actually see those trains! I was so little, but that train sticks in my memory still.
My Auntie Bonnie's house is still there, saw it on the google map! It was green then... She had a big Great Dane, Buck, and he stole the fat cooked Xmas turkey one holiday! My Mom was so kool, she later admitted she didn't have the heart to scold him! Hahaha!, the Moment of his life! Auntie Bonnie's husband had been a logger. My cousins from two of my Aunties still live and work in Tahoe area, at the top of the world.
But what am writing to you about is, besides my other interests regarding the Summit area,
I am interested to discover if there are any photographs at all of that old trailer one of you said blocked the trail, and was finally removed..., wherever?
Or where they took it and especially what year it was removed, maybe how? I am SO curious. I remember it well. I have searched and searched for photographs of it, but nary a one! Can you believe it, not ONE! It was one of the most spectacular auto-mishaps I had ever seen!
Anyway, it is a great curiosity, as I recall it, it was likely of the thirties models of what we now call "vintage trailers", and probably some sort of "Covered Wagon" variety of that era. It was very sleek and long, and in great condition (1950s).
I am especially interested in it, not only wanting to identify it's model type/year, but because it was there for a long long time and when I was about eight, thereafter, I used to marvel at it, it was so very big and sitting on it's nose, hanging off that incredible cliff at the top of the world, and I have always wondered who lost it and did they survive the fall, and HOWever did it get there actually? There should be a story passed on about that, so I am writing and illustrating one!
Well, my family and I are survivors of that particular spot, having had an auto accident on the very same spot as that trailer, in the icy sleet and because of icy roads, as you can see in the google photo-drive there is a creek runoff at that very spot where we began our slide, probably what froze (black ice) and thus caused our spinout? Maybe that same creek runoff had to do with other suchlike events like that big old trailer's demise? And WHO my goodness took care of those sorts of mishaps, I cannot recall that at all???
I was so young my memory has faded, and I can't even remember much about it all, except the spin out and then thereafter our spectacular return. It was one of the most exciting times of my entire life actually. I suppose you could say, that was when I first became aware of my mortality! It was scary but actually so exciting I must admit it still is exhilarating to remember and I so wish I could remember more! I suppose the excitement was that we all survived the abyss!
So my curiosity has been extremely piqued since the site is visible on the net, BUT WHO pays attention to the PEAK where Hwy 40 is the highest (see above rare photograph), next to the craggy big old rock that drops off into the abyss where the trailer went over and where we almost went over (Pallisades/Gen.Grant Rock I call Butt Butte heh..); the Rainbow Bridge gets all the attention, and everyone forgets that treacherous peak perhaps? I often wonder for decades, how many cars actually went off that precipice, and who survived??? So I like to hear tales about old auto/truck accidents thereabouts. There is a whole panoramic picture here I'd love to see accurately!
In Arizona there were tons of crosses indicating accidents here and there, but here, not so much as a mention of this most extremely dangerous length of road, for auto accidents in modern California times. I can imagine in historic times, and I am curious about the survival of the pioneers who attempted the incline as well.
Another thing that really confounds me is how Americans forget our history including our venerable forms (or contraptions) of traveling and SHELTER by which we settled this nation, even the forms those early clever contraptions evolved to, in our modern times, i.e. trailers. I am a vintage trailer enthusiast, and was horrified when our ignorant State Legislators chose to relegate vintage trailers to the status of garbage, hello??? I am not alone here in my indignation, evidently.
And I know my original fondness for these significant contraptions came of our accident, seeing that sturdy old trailer hanging there on that precipice forever, so heavy there was no way anyone could pull it out of there, and it would probably be there forever, such I thought when eight! And it almost was there forever!
I just have to know WHEN it was removed, and it's condition then, and possibly now even??? !!! I had actually hoped it would remain there forever, hoped to chronicle it's existence on that precipice, to see how long it would remain as it was?
It was a beauty, a really big heavy LONG thin fancy one, top of the line for it's time, and had to be of the thirties or maybe forties style?, very long, I remember because it seemed almost to dwarf the cliff. Well I used to think about our accident alot throughout my life, and in the nineties, with my child's vision still intact, I drew a picture of the incline, and put in the old trailer of course. The pix is rather buried right now, but when I find it, I will certainly post it!
I actually just found a photograph at ebay of that incline, but taken in 1947 which did not have the trailer in it (!), a clear though small picture of the incline (above pix), then, in black and white, probably one of the most significant pictures of the incline for it's time and at a great angle, a RARE shot, unbelievable! It is almost as if my Pop took the picture himself!
Funny my Mom divorced my Dad when I was nine, and married a guy who actually was in the vintage trailer business (but at the time they had not yet achieved the VINTAGE status, heh...)! So I became an enthusiast, tagging along with him when he went about his business; and my mom gave me her little teardrop he left behind! I still have it! I is my art studio. But my original inspiration was from THAT old trailer hanging off the Donner Peak precipice! It actually was of a similar style to the one I have posted here, but a longer fancier model. It reminds me of a boat.
It is obvious to me, these "covered wagon" like trailers are significant relics of a bygone era of the real covered wagons that traipsed across the Sierra Nevadas, carrying our forbears and what little they could carry, which Conestogas were also used as boats and transient homes. Any pioneer with such a vehicle with oxen to pull, was a lucky soul indeed!
Transient Americans established this once prosperous country, using such versatile constructs, and yet nowadays transient trailer enthusiasts and just-working-folks, who need such solid mobile shelters which are being targeted with prejudice for Oblivion and persecution, are being denied these clever historical accommodations, as if unsightly trailer trash? hello??? Nevertheless as the Donner experience testifies, transient vehicles of curious sorts so happen to be a venerable tradition of our nation's frontiersmen and women, and Americans are never going to be dissuaded otherwise, and this push to annihilate these antiques is most certainly UN-American.
Our nation was settled by transient Indo-Europeans by means of these significant vehicles, and I am sorry to see modern folks being propagandized towards ignorance of their significance and prejudiced against their unique offspring such as that old trailer stuck out there on that precipice destined to ignominy and entropy! They did it with our spectacular incandescent light bulbs now relegated to the heap of corporate policy and political tabus, propagandizing negative publicity so to forsake historical significance and American ingenuity. It seems a fascist trend to annihilate our heritage and ingenuity, I suppose?
These incredible old trailers are, in any Depression, excellent refuges from the vicious elements of nature, and people who live in them grow as fond of them as they become of boats when folks live in and travel about in boats, such as the famed Spray of Joshua Slocum (below). It all ties together. People who have them are so fond of these old vintage trailers, I have no doubt they would all be almost as curious as am I, about that old trailer abandoned on the precipice of the Summit, as the last Conestoga relic of the area, in a sense!
America was built by the effort of transience, to which the Donner Summit attests and applauds, but now a clueless minority wants to persecute and deny this historical transience and the clever by-products, even these historical and extremely solid constructs of transience, not allowed in trailer parks anymore (hello?), destined not for restoration and recycling but for the garbage heap? To us vintage trailer enthusiasts at least, that is tantamount to burning all the Conestoga wagons that ever scaled the Summit! If we found such a wagon on that Summit nowadays, to be sure it would be placed in a safe dry spot, for just the marvel of it.
Thus I am very curious as to the old trailer's condition and strength when it was finally removed. Curious who moved it, so I can ask them all my questions! I am starting with (you), maybe you can point me in the right direction, who took it out of there? What company removed it, and when? I just have to know! Maybe it's bones are still in their part time frozen wrecking yard??? What I wouldn't give to see it's bones, or meet it's new owner who maybe refurbished it?
Well I guess leave it to say I am utterly and entirely fascinated with all of this, and happy to meet others (such as yourselves), who are likewise fascinated with all of this! My fascination with it all is not just about the trailer, but everything related to it, the area, and from my personal point of view, for instance, my first encounter with my mortality and the power of miracles: we were beyond lucky, our old 1951 Oldsmobile spun out right on the spot where the Rock ended and there was NO guardrail protecting us from Oblivion! Life is so interesting...
We spun out nose first in a rather narrow circular motion which was happily abruptly stopped by our wheels engaging the deep cleft in the shoulder right next to the wall of rock on the SAFE side of that slippery road!!! We sat there in the snowy drizzle, my Father, my Grandmother, my two cousins, my brother, and I watched the myriad of curious onlookers in their autos as they maneuvered ever so carefully around the dangerous obstacle of our big old Buick/Olds which was taking up almost the entire left lane! We reduced that busy dangerous historic two lane Highway 40, to a one lane road! Whewie! Interesting to note, no cops up there either, to direct traffic, they all did very well indeed in spite of that black ice and drizzly wet slush!
As the old Olds spun out, I peered over the edge of the precipice that had NO guardrail for over 14 feet at that very spot of our spin-out, into Oblivion, the great abyss, wondering if it was all over for us??? Whewie!, it wasn't, Hallelujah! We all met our mortality that freezing drizzly dark night on the edge of the Precipice at the Top of the World! We escaped the Reaper! I knew it, and so did all the other curious onlookers who passed us in that dark cold drizzly night, their faces peering into our car to see if we were OK, and we were, praise God! There was no snow at that time yet, I guess my Pop was calculating a fairly easy trip, but he came out of it with a lump on his cheek the size of a tomato, and he had to go out in that weather and on that slippery road at that time, to go get us a tow. And I'd bet that his "little voice" warned him not to go!
I always wondered how he found us a tow, but the google map shows the buildings right on the top of that granite block, where evidently he got the help he needed from the pros used to pulling folks off that Rock? I bet he didn't even stop for coffee with his little ones and their Grandmother and cousins in his disabled car, on the edge of the precipice in a ditch nestled against the ROCK cliff! I always wondered what happened to that old Olds/Buick?
With his face bashed in, all black and blue, and swollen, he was a happy sight to see, finally returning to the rescue! My beautiful Pop! ...And all the passing peering peepers gone, never to forget the sight of it, I suppose?
The next memory I can conjure is going HOME, back over that dangerous fascinating Rock Precipice. Spectacular!
Coming upon it from the direction of Reno where my Aunt Benita lived, going home, cousins safely deposited with her, I recall seeing the sight of the venerable Pass, it's roadway and spectacular scenery, and immense impression it made upon me, hooked now forever on the rugged High Sierras, just like my Pop and Mom, and Mr. Muir!
I was plucky yet apprehensive, to drive over that Rock again, excited, no snow, was more or less safe enough seemingly, but going over that precipice again, was still incredibly spectacular for me then! We came upon the precipice from the east, and vaulted over it, as I scrutinized that spot, without any guardrail, the edge of the precipice, slipping past, into my memory and history, forever graven on my mind! My brother and Dad and Nana safely going home, over thee most rugged terrain in this country, in spite of us! And the road slid along, and the expanse of it all, as you see in all the pictures of that area, spectacular and spellbinding; but I could not take my eyes off that precipice, and watched it as we curled around over the bridge, and on down into the vale, out of sight, in triumph, alive still!
But what happened? Right before my very eyes, in this long spectacular descent over this incredible curvy roadway, with my eyes fixed on the precipice, there was this really big old very long trailer standing on it's nose right at the bottom of that precipice, with the rest of it leaning against the rock and gravel, that guy didn't make it! I got a load of that, a good look at it, it was burned into my memory forever, sitting there, laughing at me, YOU MADE IT AND I DIDN'T: lucky Me/us!
And what a sight, I never saw anything like it, it almost dwarfed that big old rock, and it had STYLE and dignity in it's unfortunate demise! In that very moment of my peering at it, like everyone peered at us on the Cliff I suppose, I hoped it's owner was still alive! But I knew looking at it, he could never be able to extricate that solid vehicle from it's fate, but if he could, it was perfectly intact and would indeed continue to be useful indefinitely! American made indeed, an old tradition about which our modern greedy outsourcing Great Guilds have no clue.
I wondered how long it had been there and how long it would be there, when did it get there, where it came from, and obviously it had been there awhile at least...??? I wondered over it for eons, how exquisitely built it was to withstand such a fall, so easily! Not broken in two, not splintered all over the place, just sitting there eternally on it's nose, heh... totally blew my mind! I got so absorbed in it, on down the curvy road, on until it was out of sight completely, the vale and it's ghosts disappearing from sight but not from my memory ever; and I still did not miss absorbing all of it's exquisite resting place, that cliff and vale, either.
So here I am, telling my tale. If I ever saw a vehicle like that, in picture or in person, I'd recognize it. I am an artist, it's what I do. And I have been looking ever since, and never saw one exactly like it yet, a splendid contraption! Likewise I did a search for Pop's car too, and posted it's likeness here, and likenesses of that trailer, similar but not quite it.
But it just occurred to me, I have to think, had we actually slid off that precipice, would that trailer have saved us? Like, we would have probably landed RIGHT ON TOP OF IT hahaha!, what a thought! Providence is truly Mysterious!
And so I continue to look, who can resist vintage trailer watching??? Certainly not me! not ever!
Yah bless! later/kmyoung/StarNet
What I wouldn't give to be able to go stay a summer up at the Summit and spook around with a backpack and whatnot! Yah willing, I am planning on it! I am a writer and an artist and am totally inspired by the Donner Summit area. My Pop was an enthusiast when young, he and my Mom used to hire horses even, and camp all over the Sierras; and my Mom used to be one of the best skiers up there somewhere, for real. She worked and skied at Yosemite too!
My Auntie Bonnie used to live in Truckee later on after my Mom had kids and gave up skiing. Bonnie used to send us Xmas trees every winter, and we would go down to the Millbrae Station and pick it up off one of those incredibly huge and fascinating old STEAM engine trains! I feel privileged that I got to actually see those trains! I was so little, but that train sticks in my memory still.
My Auntie Bonnie's house is still there, saw it on the google map! It was green then... She had a big Great Dane, Buck, and he stole the fat cooked Xmas turkey one holiday! My Mom was so kool, she later admitted she didn't have the heart to scold him! Hahaha!, the Moment of his life! Auntie Bonnie's husband had been a logger. My cousins from two of my Aunties still live and work in Tahoe area, at the top of the world.
But what am writing to you about is, besides my other interests regarding the Summit area,
I am interested to discover if there are any photographs at all of that old trailer one of you said blocked the trail, and was finally removed..., wherever?
Or where they took it and especially what year it was removed, maybe how? I am SO curious. I remember it well. I have searched and searched for photographs of it, but nary a one! Can you believe it, not ONE! It was one of the most spectacular auto-mishaps I had ever seen!
Anyway, it is a great curiosity, as I recall it, it was likely of the thirties models of what we now call "vintage trailers", and probably some sort of "Covered Wagon" variety of that era. It was very sleek and long, and in great condition (1950s).
I am especially interested in it, not only wanting to identify it's model type/year, but because it was there for a long long time and when I was about eight, thereafter, I used to marvel at it, it was so very big and sitting on it's nose, hanging off that incredible cliff at the top of the world, and I have always wondered who lost it and did they survive the fall, and HOWever did it get there actually? There should be a story passed on about that, so I am writing and illustrating one!
Well, my family and I are survivors of that particular spot, having had an auto accident on the very same spot as that trailer, in the icy sleet and because of icy roads, as you can see in the google photo-drive there is a creek runoff at that very spot where we began our slide, probably what froze (black ice) and thus caused our spinout? Maybe that same creek runoff had to do with other suchlike events like that big old trailer's demise? And WHO my goodness took care of those sorts of mishaps, I cannot recall that at all???
I was so young my memory has faded, and I can't even remember much about it all, except the spin out and then thereafter our spectacular return. It was one of the most exciting times of my entire life actually. I suppose you could say, that was when I first became aware of my mortality! It was scary but actually so exciting I must admit it still is exhilarating to remember and I so wish I could remember more! I suppose the excitement was that we all survived the abyss!
So my curiosity has been extremely piqued since the site is visible on the net, BUT WHO pays attention to the PEAK where Hwy 40 is the highest (see above rare photograph), next to the craggy big old rock that drops off into the abyss where the trailer went over and where we almost went over (Pallisades/Gen.Grant Rock I call Butt Butte heh..); the Rainbow Bridge gets all the attention, and everyone forgets that treacherous peak perhaps? I often wonder for decades, how many cars actually went off that precipice, and who survived??? So I like to hear tales about old auto/truck accidents thereabouts. There is a whole panoramic picture here I'd love to see accurately!
In Arizona there were tons of crosses indicating accidents here and there, but here, not so much as a mention of this most extremely dangerous length of road, for auto accidents in modern California times. I can imagine in historic times, and I am curious about the survival of the pioneers who attempted the incline as well.
Another thing that really confounds me is how Americans forget our history including our venerable forms (or contraptions) of traveling and SHELTER by which we settled this nation, even the forms those early clever contraptions evolved to, in our modern times, i.e. trailers. I am a vintage trailer enthusiast, and was horrified when our ignorant State Legislators chose to relegate vintage trailers to the status of garbage, hello??? I am not alone here in my indignation, evidently.
And I know my original fondness for these significant contraptions came of our accident, seeing that sturdy old trailer hanging there on that precipice forever, so heavy there was no way anyone could pull it out of there, and it would probably be there forever, such I thought when eight! And it almost was there forever!
I just have to know WHEN it was removed, and it's condition then, and possibly now even??? !!! I had actually hoped it would remain there forever, hoped to chronicle it's existence on that precipice, to see how long it would remain as it was?
It was a beauty, a really big heavy LONG thin fancy one, top of the line for it's time, and had to be of the thirties or maybe forties style?, very long, I remember because it seemed almost to dwarf the cliff. Well I used to think about our accident alot throughout my life, and in the nineties, with my child's vision still intact, I drew a picture of the incline, and put in the old trailer of course. The pix is rather buried right now, but when I find it, I will certainly post it!
I actually just found a photograph at ebay of that incline, but taken in 1947 which did not have the trailer in it (!), a clear though small picture of the incline (above pix), then, in black and white, probably one of the most significant pictures of the incline for it's time and at a great angle, a RARE shot, unbelievable! It is almost as if my Pop took the picture himself!
Funny my Mom divorced my Dad when I was nine, and married a guy who actually was in the vintage trailer business (but at the time they had not yet achieved the VINTAGE status, heh...)! So I became an enthusiast, tagging along with him when he went about his business; and my mom gave me her little teardrop he left behind! I still have it! I is my art studio. But my original inspiration was from THAT old trailer hanging off the Donner Peak precipice! It actually was of a similar style to the one I have posted here, but a longer fancier model. It reminds me of a boat.
It is obvious to me, these "covered wagon" like trailers are significant relics of a bygone era of the real covered wagons that traipsed across the Sierra Nevadas, carrying our forbears and what little they could carry, which Conestogas were also used as boats and transient homes. Any pioneer with such a vehicle with oxen to pull, was a lucky soul indeed!
Transient Americans established this once prosperous country, using such versatile constructs, and yet nowadays transient trailer enthusiasts and just-working-folks, who need such solid mobile shelters which are being targeted with prejudice for Oblivion and persecution, are being denied these clever historical accommodations, as if unsightly trailer trash? hello??? Nevertheless as the Donner experience testifies, transient vehicles of curious sorts so happen to be a venerable tradition of our nation's frontiersmen and women, and Americans are never going to be dissuaded otherwise, and this push to annihilate these antiques is most certainly UN-American.
Our nation was settled by transient Indo-Europeans by means of these significant vehicles, and I am sorry to see modern folks being propagandized towards ignorance of their significance and prejudiced against their unique offspring such as that old trailer stuck out there on that precipice destined to ignominy and entropy! They did it with our spectacular incandescent light bulbs now relegated to the heap of corporate policy and political tabus, propagandizing negative publicity so to forsake historical significance and American ingenuity. It seems a fascist trend to annihilate our heritage and ingenuity, I suppose?
These incredible old trailers are, in any Depression, excellent refuges from the vicious elements of nature, and people who live in them grow as fond of them as they become of boats when folks live in and travel about in boats, such as the famed Spray of Joshua Slocum (below). It all ties together. People who have them are so fond of these old vintage trailers, I have no doubt they would all be almost as curious as am I, about that old trailer abandoned on the precipice of the Summit, as the last Conestoga relic of the area, in a sense!
America was built by the effort of transience, to which the Donner Summit attests and applauds, but now a clueless minority wants to persecute and deny this historical transience and the clever by-products, even these historical and extremely solid constructs of transience, not allowed in trailer parks anymore (hello?), destined not for restoration and recycling but for the garbage heap? To us vintage trailer enthusiasts at least, that is tantamount to burning all the Conestoga wagons that ever scaled the Summit! If we found such a wagon on that Summit nowadays, to be sure it would be placed in a safe dry spot, for just the marvel of it.
Thus I am very curious as to the old trailer's condition and strength when it was finally removed. Curious who moved it, so I can ask them all my questions! I am starting with (you), maybe you can point me in the right direction, who took it out of there? What company removed it, and when? I just have to know! Maybe it's bones are still in their part time frozen wrecking yard??? What I wouldn't give to see it's bones, or meet it's new owner who maybe refurbished it?
Well I guess leave it to say I am utterly and entirely fascinated with all of this, and happy to meet others (such as yourselves), who are likewise fascinated with all of this! My fascination with it all is not just about the trailer, but everything related to it, the area, and from my personal point of view, for instance, my first encounter with my mortality and the power of miracles: we were beyond lucky, our old 1951 Oldsmobile spun out right on the spot where the Rock ended and there was NO guardrail protecting us from Oblivion! Life is so interesting...
We spun out nose first in a rather narrow circular motion which was happily abruptly stopped by our wheels engaging the deep cleft in the shoulder right next to the wall of rock on the SAFE side of that slippery road!!! We sat there in the snowy drizzle, my Father, my Grandmother, my two cousins, my brother, and I watched the myriad of curious onlookers in their autos as they maneuvered ever so carefully around the dangerous obstacle of our big old Buick/Olds which was taking up almost the entire left lane! We reduced that busy dangerous historic two lane Highway 40, to a one lane road! Whewie! Interesting to note, no cops up there either, to direct traffic, they all did very well indeed in spite of that black ice and drizzly wet slush!
As the old Olds spun out, I peered over the edge of the precipice that had NO guardrail for over 14 feet at that very spot of our spin-out, into Oblivion, the great abyss, wondering if it was all over for us??? Whewie!, it wasn't, Hallelujah! We all met our mortality that freezing drizzly dark night on the edge of the Precipice at the Top of the World! We escaped the Reaper! I knew it, and so did all the other curious onlookers who passed us in that dark cold drizzly night, their faces peering into our car to see if we were OK, and we were, praise God! There was no snow at that time yet, I guess my Pop was calculating a fairly easy trip, but he came out of it with a lump on his cheek the size of a tomato, and he had to go out in that weather and on that slippery road at that time, to go get us a tow. And I'd bet that his "little voice" warned him not to go!
I always wondered how he found us a tow, but the google map shows the buildings right on the top of that granite block, where evidently he got the help he needed from the pros used to pulling folks off that Rock? I bet he didn't even stop for coffee with his little ones and their Grandmother and cousins in his disabled car, on the edge of the precipice in a ditch nestled against the ROCK cliff! I always wondered what happened to that old Olds/Buick?
With his face bashed in, all black and blue, and swollen, he was a happy sight to see, finally returning to the rescue! My beautiful Pop! ...And all the passing peering peepers gone, never to forget the sight of it, I suppose?
The next memory I can conjure is going HOME, back over that dangerous fascinating Rock Precipice. Spectacular!
Coming upon it from the direction of Reno where my Aunt Benita lived, going home, cousins safely deposited with her, I recall seeing the sight of the venerable Pass, it's roadway and spectacular scenery, and immense impression it made upon me, hooked now forever on the rugged High Sierras, just like my Pop and Mom, and Mr. Muir!
I was plucky yet apprehensive, to drive over that Rock again, excited, no snow, was more or less safe enough seemingly, but going over that precipice again, was still incredibly spectacular for me then! We came upon the precipice from the east, and vaulted over it, as I scrutinized that spot, without any guardrail, the edge of the precipice, slipping past, into my memory and history, forever graven on my mind! My brother and Dad and Nana safely going home, over thee most rugged terrain in this country, in spite of us! And the road slid along, and the expanse of it all, as you see in all the pictures of that area, spectacular and spellbinding; but I could not take my eyes off that precipice, and watched it as we curled around over the bridge, and on down into the vale, out of sight, in triumph, alive still!
But what happened? Right before my very eyes, in this long spectacular descent over this incredible curvy roadway, with my eyes fixed on the precipice, there was this really big old very long trailer standing on it's nose right at the bottom of that precipice, with the rest of it leaning against the rock and gravel, that guy didn't make it! I got a load of that, a good look at it, it was burned into my memory forever, sitting there, laughing at me, YOU MADE IT AND I DIDN'T: lucky Me/us!
And what a sight, I never saw anything like it, it almost dwarfed that big old rock, and it had STYLE and dignity in it's unfortunate demise! In that very moment of my peering at it, like everyone peered at us on the Cliff I suppose, I hoped it's owner was still alive! But I knew looking at it, he could never be able to extricate that solid vehicle from it's fate, but if he could, it was perfectly intact and would indeed continue to be useful indefinitely! American made indeed, an old tradition about which our modern greedy outsourcing Great Guilds have no clue.
I wondered how long it had been there and how long it would be there, when did it get there, where it came from, and obviously it had been there awhile at least...??? I wondered over it for eons, how exquisitely built it was to withstand such a fall, so easily! Not broken in two, not splintered all over the place, just sitting there eternally on it's nose, heh... totally blew my mind! I got so absorbed in it, on down the curvy road, on until it was out of sight completely, the vale and it's ghosts disappearing from sight but not from my memory ever; and I still did not miss absorbing all of it's exquisite resting place, that cliff and vale, either.
So here I am, telling my tale. If I ever saw a vehicle like that, in picture or in person, I'd recognize it. I am an artist, it's what I do. And I have been looking ever since, and never saw one exactly like it yet, a splendid contraption! Likewise I did a search for Pop's car too, and posted it's likeness here, and likenesses of that trailer, similar but not quite it.
But it just occurred to me, I have to think, had we actually slid off that precipice, would that trailer have saved us? Like, we would have probably landed RIGHT ON TOP OF IT hahaha!, what a thought! Providence is truly Mysterious!
And so I continue to look, who can resist vintage trailer watching??? Certainly not me! not ever!
Yah bless! later/kmyoung/StarNet