Monday, April 4, 2005

Thank goodness for running boards Running boards were popular accessories back in the days when Bonnie drove and Clyde hung onto the roof while riding the running board and pumping lead at the cops that chased them across the country. My Explorer has running boards, which come in handy for checking to make sure I didn't leave anything on the roof before taking off on a trip. I once left a camera on the rear quarter panel of the old Chevy wagon ('61 or '62, I think, the one with the "rain gutter" channel just under the rear window) I bought from Robert Savignac for a hundred bucks. He called it "The White Stallion," but I renamed it "The Credible Hulk." Hulk took me on plenty of hunting and fishing trips for a couple years in my pre-SUV days before I sold it to two Chevy buffs who wanted the engine for stock racing. Anyway, I was coming out of the Franklin Gander Mountain store the other day, when I noticed something gleaming on the running board, just under the rear door on the driver's side. It was my Leatherman® Micra pocket tool, which had been missing for a couple weeks. The Micra goes with me everywhere. Jamie Kieckhefer gave it to me a few years ago on a fishing trip to Door County, and it is the handiest tool I own. It opens my letters, tightens screws, peels oranges and does anything else I ask of it. I must have been using it to open mail in the car and left it on my lap. Then when I got out, it must have fallen onto the running board, where it stayed through at least one rainstorm and one snowstorm, two car washes and several hundred miles of driving over freeway and backroads alike. I don't know whether it's the aerodynamics of the Explorer, the after-market shocks I put on it or the tenacity of the Micra itself, but I got my Micra back and I'm glad. 'Scuse me while I go open some mail. Later... 11:26:48 PM    comment []