Not the Uber Driver

This year, we are making hay on someone else's property, which means driving equipment six miles to its destination.

This requires multiple trips, with my husband driving a tractor over to the property while hauling a piece of equipment. Then I have to ferry him back so he can get another tractor and another piece of equipment.

It is also important that I go in front or behind him (whichever he requests) with my hazard lights flashing to keep traffic from hitting him.

He finished up the haymaking and this morning we went after the equipment. He drove the dump truck with a trailer over there so he could load the last of the hay, and I followed. He dropped the dump truck and trailer off where he had hay stacked, and then I drove him up to the landowner's shop space where he had a tractor with the equipment my husband needed to load the hay.

There I was to wait on him so I could then follow him and the dump truck home, and then bring him back so he could get another tractor and drive it home.

Yes, it was as complicated as it sounds.

Anyway, during the first part of the delivery and waiting process, I needed to turn the car around. I started backing it up, using the backup camera on the car, and then suddenly, "WHAM."

"What the f*ck did I hit," I wondered aloud. It stopped me dead, whatever it was. I pulled up a bit and looked in the backup camera. All I saw was what looked like gravel.

I got out and saw that there was actually a stump covered with gravel in the middle of this area. This was a flat, graveled area, part of a shop and machine storage place on this landowner's property, that shouldn't have a stump in the middle of it. 

It most definitely should not have a stump covered mostly with gravel that looks nearly invisible on the backup camera of a car.

The landowner was nearby but apparently did not hear my collision. I couldn't see anything wrong with the car, so I turned it around and waited for my husband to return on a tractor (also belonging to the landowner - he let us borrow it because we have a tractor out of service). 

I told him what I'd done and confessed to backing into the stump. Husband looked but couldn't see anything wrong, so we determined I'd probably hit the stump with the car tire.

He also told me that he and his helper had nearly hit the camouflaged stump while they were over there working. "I couldn't have said anything if it had done damage," hubby said. "It's a bad place for a stump."

It's stuff like that that makes me glad I'm not an Uber driver. Sheesh.