First Night

Wow.  We have been in Idaho for 2 weeks now.  In some ways it seems like we just got here yesterday...in others way it seems like we've been here for MUCH longer.

Last night was our first night sleeping in the trailer as a family, and it was perfect!  Jeff and I obviously have a bed to sleep on.  We brought our mattress from our 'bricks n sticks' house and it is just as comfortable here.  Plus even cooler since we're in a camper. :)

{Our Bed...the cabinet doors have yet to be painted...maybe I'm avoiding it a little.} 

We made Jackson a little "room" in the living room where he can have all the dark he needs in order to sleep well.  (Right now his bed is back in my mom's house, so he can nap and Jeff can work on the roof during the day.)  But this is a picture of where his bed goes...the blanket is what makes his room (eventually I will make a curtain), and the white noise from the fan right by his head is what allows us to move around and even watch movies in the living room while he's sleeping away.  The best part??  He slept in for an extra 2 hours this morning!  I think it's the dark that helped him sleep longer...whatever it was I LOVED it! :)

{Jackson's sweet room} :)

Until now, we have been sleeping in my mom's house while the trailer underwent a major overhaul.  We have painted the entire thing and Jeff installed new carpet.  There was nothing really wrong with it before, but we wanted it to be more like home, and had extra paint and carpet from remodeling our home in Utah, so why not?  (I could give you a million reasons 'why not' after the fact...remodeling anything is EXHAUSTING...but totally worth it.)

Paint and carpet sound like such easy things on paper...even after going through the craziness and never-ending-ness of it, I feel kind of sheepish saying that it took us nearly 2 weeks to get just that done.  It sure feels like it drags on forever when everything is out of its place (because there is no place for anything) and chaos reigns.  Somewhere in that chaos we tried to sleep out our beds.  Jeff and Jackson made it, but I got all restless and had to go inside and sleep on the couch.  It's the chaos I swear.  I don't know how to relax when things are so out of order.  I think I'm okay with that (as long as there's an alternative place to sleep!) :)

{The Chaos...not before, not after, but during...ack!}

Anyway, back to trailer living.  This morning I made our very first trailer breakfast, and loved everything about it.  I have such GOOD memories of trailer camping from when I was a kid, and I love the smell of the gas stove (which is different from the way it smelled when I cooked with the gas stove in our house...then again that's probably all in my mind) even the food for some reason even smells different.  I love all the quaintness of the whole experience.  I made eggs and hashbrowns.

{Breakfast}

The best part?  The dishes.  Seriously this idea of 4 plates, 4 cups and 4 bowls is something I could get used to.  When there aren't many dishes there aren't many dishes to wash!  This might be the start of a life-style change for this little family. :)

Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home for SO many reasons. :)  We got the trailer back to my mom and dad's house last night (story to follow), and tonight are finally home in Utah.  I am very glad not to have any long road trips to go on in the next days (or hours) like we have had for the past 3 days.  I feel like I have been in the car for 72 hours straight!

Towing our trailer home was more than a little surreal.  I will admit that as we were leaving the little town of Jerome - 5th wheel in tow - I had a weird, out-of-body, 'am I dreaming?' moment.  I was looking at the trailer and it was like I suddenly woke up from a dream and thought, "did we seriously just buy a 5th wheel to live in?" ... "did we seriously just do exactly what we said we were going to do?" ...And for a minute all my second thoughts and doubts and feelings like that came rushing back.  Luckily though I didn't feel well at all, so I didn't have time to dwell on that, I was too busy trying to figure out how to make my tissues last the entire trip home (at this point I had Jackson's full-on cold), and I was focused on getting comfortable in that tiny seat in the 2nd row seat of grandpa's truck.  Mahone was comfortable....lucky.

I am on the mend now, and I still don't know if I quite believe that we are really going to do this! :)

So the drive home was pretty interesting.  Grandpa thought it would be a good idea to take the old highway instead of taking the freeway, which he was probably right about.  It seemed like semi's were climbing all over us for the short time we were on the freeway.  It was windy the whole way, and seemed to get stronger the further we went.  It's easy to tell when a big gust of wind hits the side of a giant 5th wheel behind the truck you're in...the whole thing would rattle and shake and fishtail.  Grandpa looked like he was concentrating really hard, and I could tell he was worried.  But I wasn't worried.  I don't think there's anyone in the world a girl feels more safe with than her husband, her dad and her grandpa.  We found out later that we had driven through one of the worst wind-storms they'd had in a while...it was all over the news even.  yipes.

Once again the drive took WAY longer than it normally would have, but the scenery was breath-taking.  You know....they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but looking around out there, you'd have to be crazy for it not to just make your heart sing.  I don't think there are many things in the world as pretty as the snake river valley....all farm land....during a spring rain storm.

We made it back, and got 'the king' all parked in its new home.  I went inside and took a hot hot shower, took some medicine and went to bed while Jeff went with grandpa to pick up our car and little Jackson.

We are pleased with our purchase.  There are things we want to improve cosmetically AND it rained like crazy last night, which was lucky because the leak that Mark said he didn't think had leaked for a while leaked a LOT right through the roof.  We were glad we were there for that, and that we hadn't left for Utah for a couple weeks, then come back to find the damage much worse than it could have been.  Jeff didn't waste any time, and got the leaky part covered up with a tarp, then got to work tearing out the ceiling in our bedroom to stop the damage from getting any worse.  We thought we would probably fix the ceiling anyway, just didn't think we'd have to get started on it so soon. :)

{yikes...I hadn't looked at this picture until now...it looks much worse in the picture than it is in real life.}

Jeff went to the RV repair store (first trip of many over the next little while, I'm sure), but it turns out we need to wait until it's sunny and warm to fix it, and sunny/warm was not in the forecast.  So Jeff did what he could and we came home.  SO good to be here and SO good to know that we have a place to live in Idaho now.

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. :)

We came, we saw, we liked.

We made it....even though we FORGOT that we no longer have a DVD player to take in the car, and we've never been on a trip with the little one without it...he did great.  Check it out -

 {Jackson and Mahone chillin in the back.  The chest you see belonged to my Grandma Boyd.  She left it to me when she passed away.  We brought it to leave it at my mom and dad's...since we won't have space for it in our new little place.) :)

Anyway, we saw the RV. In true Idaho small-town style, Mark told us he left it unlocked and that we could "go right in". :) We had plenty of time to look around and didn't feel awkward talking about what we liked and didn't like, which was nice.  I hate when the owner is there and makes you feel all weird about looking at whatever you want to look at, and saying whatever you want to say.

The 'King of the Road' is an '89, and honestly I was expecting it to be more out of date and beat up than it was. Now, I might be wrong, but not knowing anything mechanical or how stuff like that works, and being the woman, I feel like it's my job to give the cosmetic okay - looks, smells, layout...that kind of thing.  So that's what I did.  

{Living Room}

{Kitchen}

{Bathroom...WITH bathtub.  That was a requirement for me since we do have a 1-year-old to bathe...:)}

{Bedroom...didn't get a very good pic...it looks tiny....but that's a queen sized bed, and there is plenty of room to walk all the way around it.  Also...we don't have to hunch over to walk in there...it is extra tall...bonus for a 5th wheel!}

We both liked it...the looks are good (we'll make them better, of course), no funky smells and the layout is awesome.  We still need to do the 'mechanical' inspection with my grandpa, but we're sold so far and as long as there aren't any serious problems, I think we'll be calling it home sweet home soon.

In other small-town news, we rushed to the small town where my parents live (about 2 hours away) after we left Jerome to try to make it to a school contest that my brother was in - the Mr. Mustang Contest. We were late, and Jackson was tired, so Jeff took him to my parents house and I went to the contest. It did not disappoint. At one point my mom leaned over and said something about how spot on Napoleon Dynamite is....it really is a perfect glimpse into small-town life. She was sooo right, and as I sat there I kept wondering if Napoleon himself wouldn't come on stage next. He didn't.  Dang.

Spontaneity

Jeff and I are both pretty spontaneous people. We don't mind heading out without a plan. You might call today a 'case-in-point'.

Yesterday we saw an RV on Craigslist that we knew we had to see. It was much bigger than the ones we'd seen that are in our price range AND was priced well beneath what we thought we might have to spend. It looks AWESOME and plus it's called "King of the Road". Hello! :) It had been on Craigslist for a few days before we got a chance to call on it, so we were worried it might have already been sold. When we called this morning, we were delighted to find it had not sold, but that they had had tons of calls.

What we DON'T want to have happen is for it to be sold before we get a chance to even look at it. That has happened almost half a dozen times already. I'm sure that is the case with most stuff on Craigslist that is well priced. Part of our problem is that we're looking in Boise/Twin Falls because there are almost NO trailers for sale here in the Orem/Provo area. We hadn't been willing to take a trip up there for any particular trailer until now. With our experience in losing several before we had a chance to look, we are jumping on this one.

SOOO after Jeff got off with Mark (the guy with the RV), he turned to me and said, "wanna go look at it?" [Keep in mind it is 4 hours away]. I said, "today?" to which he replied, "ya". :)

Long story short, as soon as I finish this post, we will get the house cleaned up, then we'll pack and get on the road to look at that trailer. :) Not sure if we'll buy it or not - we'd like to have my dad or grandpa or uncle Marq come check it out with us (since we are both a little clueless when it comes to this kind of stuff...for now). But we'll at least see if it's even worth the extra inspection before we drag either of them into it from Boise...more to come!