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Ft. McCoy trailer recovery...

54reo

Well-known member
1,503
49
48
Location
Chester IL
I will be leaving Southern Illinois around midnight on the 3rd of Feb. to recover the trailer I won there back in November. (!?!)

Some trailer space is reserved for FMJ, but there will be a little room left. Another 500#-600# of capacity is still available. I will be inspecting a couple of trucks as well. So if anyone needs anything picked up(small) or inspected, let me know. I would be glad to help.

I will keep up with Lane while on the road, so if there are any last minute type things, let him know.

Oh, I almost forgot. I will post pics as I can. Probably when I get back.
 

FMJ

In Memorial
In Memorial
4,210
37
0
Location
Las Cruces, NM
Brian did you get the invoice and release form?, I emailed it last night, thanks again for helping me out, drive safe and watch out for the crazies!
 

wyomingjeep

New member
43
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0
Location
North pole AK
I think Maccus may have a m35a2 that he may want you to set eyes on to relay condition. I tried but it was freakin freezing and like 70 deuces last week when i was there.
 

54reo

Well-known member
1,503
49
48
Location
Chester IL
Had to stop in Peru, Illinois due to the bad road conditions. Snow and no plows running = no fun. Will try in a few hours.

If Maccus needs anything, have him get a hold of Lane, and relay the info to him please. I will try my best to help.

Until next time......
 

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citizensoldier

Active member
3,981
17
38
Location
Northern Michigan. Smelt City
Just chatted with Brian for a bit before he lost reception. He made it there safe is loaded up and headed home. Unfortunetly he is having to do this in some bad weather. But sounded like all was well for now. Stay tuned for pictures of his adventure..
 

54reo

Well-known member
1,503
49
48
Location
Chester IL
Thanks for the support guys! I made it home safe, but what an adventure.

Time for some sleep now, pics and story to come.

Some REALLY nice trucks there.

FMJ, your stuff looks good too.
 

FMJ

In Memorial
In Memorial
4,210
37
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Location
Las Cruces, NM
Thanks Brian, I'm still sitting in Palm Desert Ca. waiting for my truck to get fixed, threw the Harmonic balancer pulley.....while I was on my way to Barstow to get my 1009....
 

54reo

Well-known member
1,503
49
48
Location
Chester IL
Where to start?....

First, I would like to say thanks to all those people that helped out in this trip. As some of you know, I won this auction back in November and didn't receive my EUC clearance until January 24th. As a result, my free time had dried up considerably since then. I posted a "Help" thread, but at the last minute, my schedule broke, allowing me a day or two to make the trip. Thank you to: my wife for being understanding through my OD addiction, my friend John for taking off of work and driving from Indiana to ride along, Lane (citizensoldier) for assisting me in all things SS, deuceswild and joeczar for offering help in picking up the trailer for me in case I couldn't make it, and last but not least, Mike from GL for going above and beyond the call in being a true professional.

Now the trip....

We (John and I) left Chester at 8:30 pm Sunday with plans of driving straight through, loading up, and turning back for home in one shot. Well, we quickly found out that we are not as young as we once were. At 1:20 am, we arrived at Peru, Illinois (I-80) and the roads were bad enough to make us pull over and let the snow plows do their thing. Might as well get a hotel room and sleep for a bit, and a shower probably wouldn't hurt either. Back on the road three hours later to (what we thought at the time) heavy fog.

The fog let up for us at I-90/39. Cool, now to make some time! Yeah, right. About 70 miles from the I-90/94 split, it started to snow. Crud. And stick. Crud, crud. I called Mike (GL) to get the directions from I-94 to the DRMO lot, and he mentioned the weather station calling for 4"-6" of snow/ice before noon. Great. Mike then remarked that it was a good thing we were going to be there soon, as they would probably close the base in the afternoon due to the weather.

This would be a great time to mention to everyone that my friend John and his wife are expecting their first child in a few weeks. It was made very clear to the both of us by his wife, that if he was not back in Indiana by 6:00 pm Tuesday to attend a "child-birthing" class, he would be dead meat. The slaughter was not to end there though, as I would be next on the list of people to pay the ultimate price. So, even though it would seem that the objective was to recover this old military trailer, in Wisconsin, in February, such is not the case. Our main goal was to have him back home before our collective death warrants were signed.

Off of 94 and onto highway 21; nine more miles! Down to 30 mph in four wheel drive, roads are completely covered at this point. Turn into the main gate, get signed in, and get stuck behind a HEMMTT wrecker hauling a tan FMTV. Too bad we can't take pics! Make a left, then a right, to the DRMO lot.

Meet Mike in person at this point. Truly a great guy to work with. He takes us to the rear of the lot to load my trailer and FMJ's stuff. At this point, John is finding my impression of a "5 year old in a large toy store" quite humorous. I can barely keep the truck between the snow drifts because of all the neat stuff to look at! Wow, there are some great looking trucks coming up at this location. Piles of brand new M105 beds stacked 6 high, some M35A2's with convoy lights, 5 ton wreckers, M35A3s, etc.

Chain the load down after Mike uses a forklift to help us. The snow is really coming down at this point. The temptation is too great though, and I ask if we could look at some of the trucks. "Sure, no problem. Just stop by the office on your way out." Oh boy! Now some of you may have been to one of these lots before, and may be wondering why we are acting so silly about being there. I guess we don't get out enough or something. But it was quite fun running around looking at the trucks. Almost fun enough to forget about the snow and our 500 mile trip home. On yeah, we need to get going, and NOW!

Say good bye to Mike and thank him for his help. He mentions a thing called "thundersnow" and the fact that it is coming this direction. Think severe thunderstorm, but at 20 degrees. Nice. Time to head south. I called Lane to quickly let him know how we were doing.

Fuel up at I-94 and hit the road. Several wrecks, but none that shut the interstate down. One car on it's roof, a semi jack knifed in the slow lane, and a few others. It snowed until just north of Madison WI. Travel was nice till we hit the IL/WI border. Now, I've driven in fog before. Remember the fog on the way up? Well, now we hit FOG. I mean we are down to literally 100 feet visibility. Normally, I would not drive in conditions like this. Too dangerous. But knowing the trouble we would be in if we were not home on time was motivation enough for us. We turned on the CB, fell in line with some semi's, and continued south at a slow and steady pace. The fog finally let up south of Springfield IL. Close to 3.5 hours in the thickest fog I've ever seen. It will take me a week to get the pucker marks out of my seats in the truck!

St. Louis found us barreling along with the windows down at 74 degrees. What a difference! (Theres your global warming, Lane!)

Finally home at 9:30 pm, 1018.3 miles later. While there were quite a few "white knuckle" moments, it was one of the best adventures I've had in awhile.

Oh, here are the pics:
 

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citizensoldier

Active member
3,981
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Location
Northern Michigan. Smelt City
Very nice write up! I am so glad you made it home safe and you will not sleep with the fishes at the hand of a crazy band of pregnant woman.. :D
Did you hit the freezing fog? That stuff is the worst.. Starts to wieght the truck down and you have to go out and chip it off like a Liberty ship in the North Sea...So how is your trailer? Thanks for sharing
 

54reo

Well-known member
1,503
49
48
Location
Chester IL
Luckily, no freezing fog Lane. I was hauling a few extra hundred pounds of snow/ice until Madison. The temps warmed up enough at that point to help me loose that stuff.

John made it home to attend his class, and he is still alive.

The trailer...

Oh yeah, the reason for going there in the first place. It is in great condition, with new tires (11.00x20), taillights (catseyes), wiring, and airlines/gladhands. Lane said it could probably be pulled home, and I believe it. I will get some pics today.
 
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