Please Learn From The Flying Tiki And Tie Down Your Cargo

I obsessively tie down everything I carry in my truck but skipping this practice could've been tragic.

You remember the giant Tiki head we had in the Freaky Tiki Tavern. That is "Lono", named after the Polynesian God. Lonowas sculpted, shaped and painted by several talented artists from Nightmare On 19th Street including Robin Burkette, Lynn Day (also known for his metal Dimebag sculptures) and my business partner, Corey Trahan. It took this crew and I'm sure several other folks, a lot of work to get this fella together.

We were offered the opportunity to retrieve Lono because the property is being sold. I made arrangements and visited the location on Sunday. Well, this is where a number of other factors come into play. First, I HATE working on Sundays. Next, there was a second item to retrieve. Finally, I was only going a matter of blocks. It seemed like everything was fine.

I loaded the giant foam rock in the truck first. It was pretty dang heavy and pretty dang large, after all, it was designed to hide a huge subwoofer that was part of the p.a. When I saw the perfect gap in front of it, I jammed Lono in there and checked him a number of times by hand. Since he too was heavy, I wasn't worried about making it the ten blocks or so to my destination.

Sure enough, after turning from Texas Avenue to 19th he shifted, the wind caught him and blew out of the back of the truck. Fortunately, the car that was behind me was way behind me and did not have to slam on the breaks. In fact, they were kind enough to just stop behind the Tiki until I reloaded it.

Still, all of this reminds me of a Final Destination type scenario. There could have been someone behind me that could have swerved into an opposing lane and there could have been a tragic outcome. Fortunately Lono, the Tiki God smiled on me and kept me out of trouble, even though it's going to take a bit of Bondo to put him back together.

Tie your loads down everybody, no matter how short the trip. Things can go wrong when you least expect it.

Remnants of the 1970 Lubbock Tornado