I told you earlier this week I bought a boat with my son. Only problem? I bought it from an Oregonian, who are not required to register their trailers. But Washingtonians are. So how do I register a boat that has no registration history? Well, it took some MacGyver-style, Sherlock Holmes, CSI forensic science... but I did it.

The Washington State Patrol will give me a three-year registration on this Oregon trailer if I can provide the serial number and file a "lost title" report. The serial number is printed on a sticker on the trailer -- the trailer that's been in and out of the river and baking in the sun since 1973. Wanna guess what kind of shape that sticker is in? You wanna bet whether I was able to read that serial number?

Now this is the part where I'm going to blow you away with my sheer awesomeness:

The thought occurred to me, that number would have been typed, with a typewriter, onto the sticker in 1973. Typewriter, huh? Hmmm.

I went to the garage and got a piece of charcoal. I got my finger good and dirty and then rubbed the sticker lightly with the charcoal dust.

The impression from the stamped numbers became visible!

"Ahhh, ahhh! Somebody grab me paper and pencil, I DID IT!"

MacGyver would have been so proud.

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