I'm getting smarter

I really must be getting more intelligent in my old age. I know it must be so because my son asks me questions and seeks my opinion a lot more than he did 10 years ago.

Intercourse for lunch!

I got your attention didn't I? Read on and I will explain the title of this post.


After leaving Zac's place we headed east to avoid the construction we had encountered on the way in from Pittsburgh.


Tuesday morning to started our journey south. A little before noon, Judy asked, "How about Intercourse for lunch?". I responded with, "Sounds good to me!", and we headed out into the country. About an hour later we were in Lancaster County, Pa. home to a large Amish community.






















































The name of this little Amish hamlet is....................









































































Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Almost a great idea

We had a "non-skid" bedliner installed under our tonneau cover on the Dodge. While there I spotted these little jewels.















They are tie-downs for the bedliner.















They fit in the grooves of the bedliner.

When you rotate the "eye" with the bar that is included, a cam closes the jaws to hold it in place. Great idea but they are not adjustable and my non-skid bedliner has smaller ribs than a normal one and they will not grip it. Darn!

Road Trip

We loaded Zac's stuff under our new tonneau cover Friday night because Saturday is my longest day at work and we wanted to get an early start Sunday morning for our trip to State College, Pa.



Our planned route would take us thru Memphis and Nashville, Tn., Louisville, Ky., Cincinnati and Columbus, Oh., Wheeling,WV., Pittsburgh, Pa. and finally State College, Pa. The first leg of our trip would be about 1070 miles.



After helping Zac, we would use the rest of the week for our vacation by driving south thru the Smoky Mountains.



Sunday morning we fueled the truck and was on our way by 7 am. About an hour later Zac called and said he and his mom were just leaving ( 2 hours earlier than I had predicted). I set the cruise control on the posted speed limit of 70mph ( I rarely drive my little S-10 over 65 mph) and let the Cummins diesel rumble east.

This was our first "road trip" in our Dodge 3/4 ton and we found the ride to be rather nice for a large truck and the room inside compared to our S-10 was amazing.

I always have an ice chest in our truck and on vacation we carry picnic supplies as well as our drinks ( sodas and lots of water). We stopped east of Jackson, Tn. at a rest area and had a picnic lunch. The hour or so it takes to spread a table cloth and prepare proper sandwiches ( as compared to having just meat and bread) always is time well spent as it fuels our bodies and gives us a much needed break. A sandwich with all the trimmings and chips just taste better at a picnic table than it does at the kitchen table. I called Zac and told him where we were, he and his mom were grabbing a fast food burger in Jackson and would pass us before we had finished our picnic lunch.

We always picnic lunch or grab a burger and try to have a nice evening meal if time and place permits. That meal came at Cincinnati, Oh., I then took a wrong turn that added about 25 miles to our trip.

We stopped for the night at Columbus, Oh. (over 800 miles for the day) and Zac and his mom were spending the night in Wheeling, WV.

Pittsburgh to State College is under construction so we decided to grab a burger for lunch when we were about an hour out. Zac called and they were there. He was not a "happy camper". He had to rent his place without ever seeing it in person ( he would be sharing a townhouse with 2 other people) and he informed me that it was in total disarray.

Jeff (the lessee ) had not been there all summer and the other guy would be moving out before school started. He had been letting other people crash at the house all summer and it was a total pigsty. He could care less ( I'm sure his mama didn't raise him that way) as he had already been returned his deposit and would be gone in a week. Add that to the fact the guy that was renting Zac's room still had his stuff stored in the living room as his new place was still occupied. It literally looked like a "crack house". The guy seemed nice enough, just a slob.

When we arrived, Zac was just returning with cleaning supplies. Being a fastidious person, the house would get a transformation in the next 3 hours.

After our cleaning and straightening the place was looking better and as soon as the extra stuff is gone, it will be fine.

After unloading our truck, Zac and I picked up a bed that he had purchased earlier in the day and and then unloaded his Santa Fe. We all had pizza at Pizza Hut and back to Wally World pillows and a few other things he needed.

His mom would be flying back on Thursday so he was in good hands. After our goodbyes, we were off on the rest of our vacation. Being a college town we found the motels outrageously high ( little did we know that was Pa. in general), so we drove east before spending the night.

!@##@$%^% blogger!!

I'm so sick of blogger loosing connection and not "saving" my posts that I am about ready to give up blogging altogether.

Tired- Big Time

I took this picture thru the windshield of my work truck on Friday before we left on our trip to Penn State.

We are home after moving Zac to Penn State and traveling on to eastern Pennsylvania, before heading home thru the Smoky Mountains. We traveled 2800 miles.

When I rest up I will tell you all about our trip. BTW, the truck was great and averaged about 21 mpg. Very pleased with it.

Ram it !

After having a little "fun" at new car dealerships and getting close to the best price possible (their best price vs. my "I will buy today at this price"), I knew about what a new truck was going to cost me.

After taking everything into account, I had decided on a Dodge Ram 2500. A lot of things went into this decision but the Dodge just scored higher overall than a Ford F-250. Sorry but I just could not see myself driving a "butt ugly" Chevrolet.

Since I really didn't want to buy from a large dealer, I figured I would drive out of town on Tuesday (my only day off other than Sunday) to a smaller dealership and try to buy (if they would come within $250 of the big dealer price) my truck. Any dealer can get the truck I wanted.

I was looking at either a Bright Silver or Slate Grey truck as they seem to look the best with the minimum amount of chrome that comes standard on a truck. The red and dark red look rather "bland" on the lot. White was out of the question as it looks like a company truck and always will.

One last check of the newspaper on Saturday revealed a 2006 Inferno Red(dark red) for sale "by owner". The price seems right and I made arrangements to see it on Sunday afternoon.

Knowing this was not my preferred color, I wasn't expecting much but the owner said he had added a few extras in the 15 months he had owned it. The best part was it had never pulled a heavy load. He ran a lawn mowing service and pulled a 16ft trailer loaded with his equipment.

When we rounded the corner and saw the truck, it just "jumped out at me". He had added just enough chrome and tinted the windows to really bring out the dark red color.

When I saw it I said, "Well there is the piece of crap". I was joking but my wife thought I was serious since I had stated I didn't want a red truck.

We had a chance to look it over before the owner came out. It was nearly perfect. A couple of small scatches and a very small bb size dent in the rear bumper.

The owner had added several hundred dollars worth of extras to the truck.

He had tinted the windows, added chrome door handles and tailgate lever, a chrome bug shield, a tinted sunvisor on the windshield and black mud flaps. He had also added a high dollar K&N lifetime reusable air filter. Not sure I would have added everything but it sure made the truck stand out.

We talked a little with the owner and everything was to my liking but when he offered to let me drive it, I declined. Before leaving I asked for his bottom dollar and he said $400 less than the price in the paper. His lawn care service was a second job and just needed "pay off" on the truck. I gave him the usual "I will be back to you" and we drove off.

Since I didn't drive the truck Judy figured I was not interested. Not the case, I saw no reason to drive it because it anything was wrong I would just have it fixed because it was still under warranty.

I had written down the serial number because I wanted to check it out at the dealership the next day. They told me it had only had the a/c vent door replaced and a recall on the fuel system fixed.

After talking it over we decided it just made better sense to buy this truck because it was 25% less than the best price I could get on a new one.

I called him on Monday and said we wanted the truck. Really thought it would take a few days to purchase it as it was financed thru Chrysler Credit and it sometimes takes a few days to get all the i's dotted and t's crossed.

He called Chrysler for the "payoff" and needed $153.28 more than he had quoted me for his bottom dollar. I said, "no problem" as I knew he was needing out from under his payments.

Judy and I when shopping for the stuff we needed to add to the truck. It HAD to have running boards so Judy could get in without a step stool. We also wanted a bedliner and a fiberglass lid (tonneau cover). We found the running boards and bedliner in stock but would had to order the tonneau cover. It had to be ordered by Wednesday noon for delivery on the following Friday. Without actually owning the truck (things can happen), everything was on hold. It didn't look like we could get everything done before we go on vacation.

But on Tuesday by 4:30 pm the truck was ours. Wednesday morning before work we head out to Goss Campers for our running boards, bedliner and to order our tonneau cover. While we are at it , we might as well add chrome wheelwell moldings. Peggy (the owner of Goss Campers) said if for some reason our tonneau didn't come in, she would put a black one on for us to use until we returned from vacation.

The tonneau cover arrived on Friday and we are now packed to head for Penn State Sunday morning.

The truck is a 2006 Dodge 2500, 4dr, diesel, automatic with the tow package. It has all the usual "bells and whistles" you would expect on a nice truck. The only thing it did not have was the extending tow mirrors.

The color is called "INFERNO RED".

"Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder", but we think it is gorgeous.

We sold our 1995 Mercury Sable that we have owned for 12 years.

Hope the Dodge is as dependable.

We will be gone for a week and will catch up with everyone when we return.

I have been trying to save a draft on this for a week.

Problems

Blogger is giving me a headache. I have been working on a draft for to days and it will not "save" or "post". I'll see if this post works.

Canada bound update

I have received three e-mails from Jerry the biker. His last stated he had to cut his journey short because of a doctors appointment ( he had mentioned his medical history to me) that he thought could be rescheduled but couldn't.

He had made it to Lexington, Ky. and had biked over 1000 miles. He was disappointed about having to stop but looking forward to completing his adventure at a later date.

I will be traveling in that part of the country next week as I am helping Zac move to Penn State and Judy and I will just make a vacation out of it.

It will be our first trip in our new truck. Oh, haven't told you about that. Another day another post.

Convoy

When I hear the word "convoy" I think of the 70's song by C.W. McCall about renegade truckers barrelling down the highway.

Today there will be a different kind of "convoy", these log trucks will form a convoy to head for the Georgia Pacific mill at Crossett, Ar.

This is a national campaign to raise money for "The Children's Miracle Network". Arkansas always ranks near the top or top of all states for moneys raised.


























This is part of the 16 trucks (from just one community) that was sitting over the weekend to gain awareness for the program.













Each load has a sticker to designate the contractor donating the load to the program. This is a great program and raises millions of dollars each year. You can learn more about it at their web site.
http://www.logaload.org/

August book review

My August book review is a little late. With Tuesday being my only day off (besides Sunday when you can get nothing done) and I have been trying to get a truck bought and get our car sold, I have been my usual busy self. But I think the wait is worth the book that I will tell you about.

The book was mentioned over at http://possumliving.blogspot.com/

and it sounded like something I would enjoy. I ordered thru PaperBackSwap that I had told you about some months back. "Enough already just tell about the book."

Border Music, by Robert James Waller ( author of Bridges of Madison County).

The book tells of Cowboy Jack Carmine ( an aging Vietnam vet with flash backs) and a slightly younger Linda Lobo ( but aging adult club dancer) heading to his rundown ranch in Alpine, Texas. A second parallel story is being told about Jack's disillusioned uncle Vaughn Rhomer, a produce manager in a Iowa supermarket.

The love (or lust) story is both familiar and unpredictable at the same time. I enjoyed the book and I hope you will too.

I continue to look for books that night interest me. If you have one just throw the title my way, thanks.