Chris...wow take a breath and take stock of the good things you have...health, family, and really nice boat. I chime in because the same thing happend to me a couple of years ago. I was moving the boat out of the garage to hitch it up. The driveway has a downhill grade--I thought I would save some time by rolling the boat out and having my wife put the blocks in front of the wheel father down the driveway than usual (Usually I do this alone in smaller increments, moving the blocks in front of the trailer wheels until they clear the garage). As I started pulling--marital communication broke down and me shouting "ok put it down!....put it down..now...now...!" Momentum took over and then time stopped.
In a millisecond, I surveyed the situation. The boat is now picking up speed...my wife is now in no position to put the blocks in front of the wheel, my shoulder is imbedded in the point of the boat to no effect--this is real. Ok --decision time: (1) avoid 2007 Tahoe LTZ; (2) guide trailer to softest possible landing-hedge on left side of driveway or if that doesn't work, basketball hoop with weighted base a little farther along; (3) next is the large Rhododendron bush; (4) how much does it cost to repair gelcoat, (5) oh oh.. beyond the Rhododendron is the neighbors's brick driveway light structure...;(6) trailer picking up speed--$#@! the driveway light! 3 seconds later it is over. I mangage to guide the trailer away from the Tahoe into the hedge...and the basketball hoop...and the large Rhododendron bush and -- it stopped--the tongue of the trailer imbedded in and through the Rhody and came to rest about 2 feet to the right of the neighbors brick driveway light. The trailer jack collapsed--probably right before going into the hedge and basketball hoop. I had to jack the tongue up and it took a long time to figure out how to back the trailer out of the Rhody and hedge. As I was running along side the trailer, guiding it into the bushes, the trailer jack collapsed and came down on my left calf. I was lucky because it only gouged the skin and did not totally break my leg. I did not even notice it when it was happening.
After it was over, my foot was really sore, my calf was bleeding, the basketball hoop was junk, the Rhodonendron was all cut up, the left trailer fender and brake light were kind of nicked up, but we were ok and the boat was fine--and the neighbor's had no idea what was going on. In the end I felt like we were really lucky but really should not have been trying to take a short cut without some rehersal or practice first. This kind of thing can go real bad--but it didn't! learn from it and then say thanks.
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