The Brick found the perfect truck to pull our new trailer 15+ hours away, at a dealer in Devil's Lake, North Dakota. So what did we do?
Left Sunday around noon. Drove 15+ hours one way...got into Minot (our first hotel) at 2:45 a.m.
Spent that day test-driving the truck and taking it to a local mechanic. Made the deal around 3 p.m. Discovered we couldn't get the truck yet -- because our credit union only wires money in a two-hour period. In the morning. (They conveniently forgot to mention this to the Brick when he e-mailed to warn them about the withdrawal.)
Found another hotel. Crashed. Couldn't sleep -- we were both too fired up. Plus TMC had some weird 'bad guy' movies on, including Psycho, Peeping Tom and Robert Mitchum in this creepy child-snatching movie, Night of the Hunter.
Gives you a whole new perspective on the hymn "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms."
(Peeping Tom was weird, too. Yes, stranger than Norman Bates and his zany mom. Watch the whole movie here, if you like.... but with a friend. )
Two nights in a hotel were fun, sort of. Two nights in a hotel with the Brick were definitely better than being by myself. (True to form, there was very little on TV. With as many cable channels as hotels have, wouldn't you think there'd be more to choose from than old episodes of Supernatural and American Pickers?)
Next morning, trudged over to the dealer. (It's the Chrysler dealer in town -- ask for Jordan, by the way.) Got the truck -- formed a convoy -- and drove the 15+ bleary-eyed hours home.
We pulled into Castle Rock at 3 a.m. this morning. I had a piano lesson to do this afternoon, and wanted to be sure we made it in time. (Ironically, the lesson didn't happen.) Thank God for the chance to sleep in, fresh eggs from the chickens, and canned beef stew over rice. All easy things to do.
It was icy cold in Devils Lake, and windy as all getout. We fought the wind, and had to keep moving to miss the freezing rain that kept creeping in around the edges. We were traveling through incredibly beautiful country in the Dakotas -- but it was also very isolated. (More on this tomorrow.) And we were tired. A big batch of scary fog in Wyoming, plus the highway closed, only a few miles from our house, just topped things off.
We're glad to be home.
The truck is big, rumbling (diesel) and more than capable. The Brick is thrilled -- it really did turn out to be the perfect truck, for what we needed. I just have to get used to climbing up to get in. Not only was the price right, but it has all sorts of additional goodies. Apparently it includes a custom package, including seats that not only heat themselves, but have air conditioning in each seat, as well!
Front and back.
I can just hear what my dad, the tough Dutch farmer, would have said about that. After he stopped laughing, that is.
We came home to an armload of daffodils, blooming their heads off. Just in time -- we're due for a snowstorm tomorrow night.
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