Thanks! Beau and Crew made it to Ontario with the exception of ONE hunter. He had a OWI NINE years ago and the guy at the gate was being a jerk and wouldn’t let him into Canada!
So, that guy took MY truck and drove back the 8 hours to stay at our cabin until someone could pick him up and bring him back south. In the process, he managed to crack MY windshield, so I’m not all that happy. He said he would pay for the repairs and he’s d@mn right about THAT!
Beau’s friends are why I can’t have nice things! Grrrr!
Other than that, the hunting and fishing started early this morning. All dogs are fine - I think there is a total of 10 or so with them.
The police showed up at our house Friday. I was not home, so mom talked to him. Very nice officer. He was there because someone had reported our mailbox as a ‘road hazard’. The box has been hit at least twice recently. The 2nd hit has affected the way the door works so I will have to take the box off & see what I can do.
What the officer found:
Box is installed per post office regulations which means 6 to 8” off the edge of the pavement. Mail carrier approved the installed location.
Extra fluorescent tape has been added to the box to make it more/VERY visible.
Our box is a ‘swing’ box - if hit, it swings out of the way. This was developed for rural roads where mailboxes tend to get wiped out by snow plows. The officer had never seen a swing box before & really liked it.
Officer’s conclusions:
Our box is NOT a road hazard. He told mom if it gets hit again to call the police & file a damage report that would help with an insurance claim (we are not filing claims for an $80 mailbox). He also loved the views at our house. I think mom has a new friend!:-)
Back to the mailbox .... there are a lot of very large pickups with big mirrors & big tires so their lights are high enough that if the driver cannot keep his truck on the pavement, the mailbox gets hit. The ‘complainer’ is lucky we have a swing box because if it were on a regular post, damage to their vehicle would be much more severe. The mailbox is also extra heavy-duty. The box when we bought the house had been hit & the door barely worked & the wooden post was badly cracked. I got permission from the PO to move the box to our side of the road so mom didn’t have to walk across the road - that’s when we got the new box & swing post.
Of course, no one who has hit our box has had the common courtesy to let us know so I have zero empathy for their vehicle damage. Based on some of the debris I’ve picked up, it’s probably a couple hundred dollars per hit.
On one of my two trips to Canada I was in a VW in the 1970s in college and going to the Shakespeare festival in Stratford Ontario. We were a bit shaggy looking and they pulled us all out and did a search for laughing tobacco! Had none, so the agent let us through.
Just read this about the errant hunter. I hope he just gets it fixed instead of just leaving it for you to take care of.