No Parking

Lucille and the boys taking in the Valley of all Valleys, Yosemite National Park. If you have not been there, then go!!!

Sometimes its the little things that grab you more than the big things. Of all the incredible things that happened for us on this trip, I must admit, that the one that holds perhapse the warmest corner of my heart involves a beat up old T-Handle Allen Wrench and an equally roughed up camera crane.

Some wonderful friends of our had allowed us to borrow their camera crane for the road trip and it required an Allen Wrench to be able to adjust the weights on it so we could balance the camera on the other end. For the majority of the trip, we used our Mechanic’s self contained allen wrench set to make the adjustments and life was dandy. On the third day of the trip (we were traveling somewhere between Placerville and Yosemite) when we got a call from our office manager who had stayed behind. We were a hundred dollars away from being flat broke with 12 days ahead, 20 mouths to feed, 6 cars to supply fuel to, and 2,500 miles between us and the completion of the road trip. Not long after that, we stopped the caravan along the side of the road for some pit stops and Hector and I used this moment to step aside and chat about the scenario. How we made it all the way through to the end is another story entirely and I will save it for a different time. The reason why I have set all that up is not to share what we talked about (we decided to continue on as if we had more than enough funds to finish if you were wondering) but to share something that at the time seemed completely negligeable. We were about 100 feet away from the cars and while we were talking I looked down on the ground and saw what looked to be a simple tool of some kind. I picked it up without thinking much of it and realized that it was a single T-Handle Allen Wrench. Being the boyscout that I am (thanks for that dad) I took it back with me and placed it in the glove box of Lucille and promplty forgot all about it.

Now fast forward to a week or so after the road trip. We’re back home and we are working on some of the in town scenes.  We are shooting some scenes of the bus driving around town and we decide to use the crane but uh oh! Our mechanic Jason is now back at his home and has taken his Allen Wrench set with him. We can’t adjust the weights on the crane and time is running out to get the shot. We are about to send someone to pick up an Allen Wrench set when I remember the T Handle that I had found and placed in the bus. I figure that although chances are slim that it is the right size, its at least worth a shot. I dig it up and test it out. IT FITS!!!! It’s exactly the right size for the crane. How cool is that! We didn’t have to spend money that we did not have to by an allen wrench that we only needed for a few more days.

Would we have gotten the shot without the wrench. Yes, most undoubtedly. We had faced much more difficult challenges before this and come out the victor. When its all said and done, it was a very small victory but for some reason it has stuck with me more than the others.

I think it comes down to the fact that we truly believed that we had set us on this course by fate and as such, the designer of our destiny had provided for even our smallest needs to be met, even weeks or possibly years in advance, when that poor little T-Handle Allen Wrench got lost on the roadside and waited for our fortuitous pit stop.

Here’s our actors getting to know Lucille and each other the morning that we left town. Can you feel the anticipation? I can. =)

also included: Shameless plug for our friends over at bug-o-rama! You guys are the best!!!