Friday morning *littlegett comes over to help me load about a ton of metal plates, set pieces, and props for my industrial lighting workshop. We load up the camper for a two day trip, driving down from BFE to enjoy the monthly open house hosted by =wynnesome at D.M. Gremlin studios in Long Beach. The workshop is the following day.

Driving down through the Cajon pass, even *littlegett can feel the truck getting a little squirly. Winds are brutal, the camper adds a dangerous high-center of gravity, and the trailer is making me work to keep the truck in between the lines. We figure it's just the wind and the load.

We don't even make it half-way.

There's a loud sound and the whole truck shudders. I look in my side mirror to see nothing but smoke, and bits of tire and metal spraying the vehicles in the adjacent lanes. It gets louder, and the truck is being yanked into the next lane. Foot off the gas, gradual brake, and try to keep from overcorrecting in a top-heavy vehicle. After what seems like forever we make it to a stop at the side of the highway, miraculously without taking out any other vehicles via shrapnel or multi-lane travel

Pulling well off into the dirt, we sit a few seconds. The truck isn't damaged. One of the rails has snapped, but the load is still intact. It's a best case scenario of what could easily have turned into one of those 45 car pileups you hear about. No major damage. No injuries.

We're fortunate to have come to a stop mere miles from ~Battledress studios, and help isn't far away. It's a broken axle. We're pretty much screwed. We get our "tow it or we will" warning from the HP. There's no way to get the set to its destination, I don't have the money to rent another trailer, so I start making calls to try and reschedule the workshop to another day. The model is not happy. Refunds are issued to attendees.

Lee Berczel arrives to make some emergency roadside repairs, we offload most of the props and set pieces into other vehicles, and then attempt a quasi-legal transport to ~Battledress studios. Pissed as hell, but safe and sound. Could have been a LOT worse.

Everyone decides to try and make a go for the open house that night anyway. It's "bring-your-own-prop" night, and there's always fun to be had. I snatch up one of my new "props", and it's off to new make the best of the madness.

It was great crowd and another memorable event. More images are sure to surface here in the next few days