My dad and I left Hancock WI, in our new bus to pick up our old bus which had broken down leaving us stranded in Saginaw MI (but that's another story). Usually we would have already been on the road that morning for the seven hour one way journey, but my dad had to sing for two Memorial Day services, and there were some last minute preparations to be made. We were not able to get on the road (what my dad considers on the road) until 6:30pm. We had already left though around 4:30pm. We were met with a storm west of Milwaukee on interstate 39. We made it through just fine. Everything was going well, and then it happened. We were near Kenosha when the lights went out.
The following takes place between 8:30 and 9:30pm(ish) C.S.T. on Memorial Day.
The lights were not working. Dad didn't think this was a big deal. He hoped to pull into a truck stop, find the problem, fix the problem, and be on our way. So we pulled into a Shell north of Chicago. When we got out to find the problem, we discovered that the wires that hook up the trailer lights had been smashed beneath the tongue of the trailer and the draw bar (or the ball I can't remember which). The good news, it wasn't like that when we left, thus making it only indirectly our fault. The bad news, while we only indirectly caused the problem, we had directly rented the trailer. This however, was the least of our problems. You see the wires were probably smashed because our hitch had bent three to four inches.