We paid CASH for a house! :)

I don't know WHAT we were thinking, but we decided to go back to Jerome to check out the trailer this morning!  We didn't go to bed until like 11 (including little Jackson), then we turned around and got up at 6 (Jackson usually goes to bed at 8 and gets up at 7:30...poor guy got ripped off!) so we could leave my parent's house by 6:30, so we could drop Jackson off at my sister's house by 7:15ish, so we could stop by my aunt's house and still make it to my grandpa's house by 8.  Whew...exhausting just typing it!  {Side note: as I was typing that, I realized how lucky I am....all these incredible people willing to help us out with whatever they have...and 'what they have' is not by any means overflowing...they are just willing to share whatever they happen to have at the moment.  I love that we will be close to them for a while!}

We got to my grandma and grandpa's house just after 8...record punctuality for us.  My grandparents are in their 70's, but you'd never ever guess it.  Both look young and the running joke in our family is that no one can out work my grandma.  She honestly spends 10 hours a day on her yard in the summertime.  They are both loving, serving, happy, incredible people....everything you'd ever wish for in a grandma and grandpa.  They are night owls and often stay up past midnight, so when we called and asked my grandpa what time he'd want to go, he said 8 was okay, but that he'd have to get up a little earlier than usual.  Love it! :)  When we got there, they were both waiting for us.

{Aren't they cute??}

Grandpa had gotten his truck out (we took his truck since he has a 5th wheel already and thus a 5th wheel hitch...we didn't want to take 2 trips in case we decided to buy it).  I went inside for a minute and Jeff took Mahone to run around the yard for a minute and take care of his business.  My grandparents and I chatted for a minute, then grandpa said, "Well is Jeff going to come in for a prayer?"  I loved that.  The way he said it spoke WAY louder to me than the words.  What I heard was a message loud and clear - that we always pray before we go on trips, and that everyone should without thinking twice.  So we prayed, hugged grandma, and the 3 of us (plus Mahone) were on our way.


The first 45 minutes or so of the trip were pretty boring....just a drive on the desert freeway...and THEN...well...have you ever seen those pieces of tire on the freeway that look like this?

For some reason Jeff, my grandpa and I all thought those pieces were from semi trucks.  I don't know why we would think that.  Turns out they come from any old car (or truck in this case), and they aren't blown out tires like I thought they might be.  Those little shreds of tire are what is left behind when the tread separates from the tire mid-trip.

So there I was dozing off when all of a sudden, I hear a loud noise and the truck all of a sudden pulls to one side.  Grandpa white knuckles it, and pulls over to the side of the road (thanks to a nice trucker who saw what happened and slowed down so we had room to move over).  Freaky.

Jeff and Grandpa got out and I heard Grandpa give his signature, "Well I'll be."  When I got out, I saw what he meant and felt like giving a, "well I'll be" myself.  The tire hadn't blown or popped....the tread had just come clean off, so the tire was now bald, but as inflated as ever.  In case you've never seen something like this up close...let me treat you with a picture.  When a tire loses its tread, it looks

{like this}

{and this}

 Mahone and I stood by nervously while Grandpa and Jeff got under the truck to get the spare tire.  I was relieved when after about 5 minutes, my grandpa decided he'd just try to drive into town instead of staying on the side of the road to change the tire.  24 years ago, Jeff's dad was hit by a car while he was bent down under it trying to get it ready to tow (read more here).  That was going through my mind the whole time we were there on the side of the road, and I watched the oncoming traffic carefully.  In retrospect, I don't know what I would have done if I'd seen an out of control car coming toward us, but in my mind I guess I would go wonder-woman and be able to warn them to get out of the way.  Luckily it didn't come to that.

We were only about 20 miles from the next town, so grandpa took it slow and stayed on the side of the road at a cautious 40 miles per hour.  Once we got to the tire shop, it took them about 30 minutes to pop the new tires on and we were on the road again.

{I have always loved my grandpa's concentrating mouth.  I remember it from when I was a really little kid - I love how his bottom lip sticks out a little.} :)

What is usually a 2 hour drive instead took 3 1/2 hours.  But we arrived in good spirits.  We showed grandpa around the trailer.  The thing he was most worried about were the two little places it looked like there had been leaking in the roof, which we'd seen before.  Then he and Jeff went outside and on the roof and looked all around.  I was bored and starting to feel Jackson's cold coming on (he'd been VERY sick for a few days, and I knew I was getting it), so while Jeff and grandpa called Mark to ask him some questions, I went and laid down in the truck.

This guy Mark was a country boy if I've ever seen one.  In his late forties, weird beard/goatee thing going on on his face and he had like 7 guys in their early twenties just hangin around his property, which was FULL of trucks and tractors and semi's and tires and an enormous shop.  I mean, you almost knew what kind of a guy he was going to be before he ever came out of the house.  One of those guys who a.l.w.a.y.s. has a story to tell.  I imagine him as the guy everyone buys drinks for a the bar just to get him to keep telling his fish stories.

I don't know WHAT he thought he had to tell Jeff and Grandpa, but they talked and tinkered around that trailer for like 3 hours.  I would sit up every once in a while to try to see what they were doing, and they were always in man-stance.  One of them would point at something on the trailer, then they'd all come in close to get a good look, then some talking and some nodding, then they'd back up a few feet (and spread out of course...for their man space), put their hands in their pockets and not say anything for a few minutes.  Then it would start over.  And I swear every time I looked over there was another one of Mark's goonies there to add his two cents.

FINALLY I heard Jeff say something about going to lunch and he and Grandpa came and got in the truck.  Jeff had agreed to buy it, but Mark and his grunts (mostly his grunts we found out later) were going to put smaller tires on it to make it easier to tow.  A relief since the tires that were on it were ENORMOUS and because of them the bottom stair leading into the rv came to my knees. :)

A few Subway sandwiches later we were on our way back to pick up the Kind of the Road.  We settled up with Mark and traded him our money for some paperwork (an ordeal that took at least twice as long as it should have because you know....the stories.)

And long story short, we are now the proud owners of a 1989 King of the Road 5th wheel...home sweet home.  And the joke keeps going that today we paid CASH for a house. :)