I didn’t get a post written last week. I just couldn’t find the time, why you ask? Well, between Thanksgiving and an awful snowstorm and what we were up too, time just slipped on by. Then December started, WHERE HAS THE YEAR GONE?!! We were busy putting up the tree and decorations and getting our house ready for Christmas. I love the end of the year and all the traditions it brings with it. That makes it one of my favorite times! Pop on the Andy Williams Christmas Album, cringe when the children singing ” Away in a manger” are off key and get busy making memories.
The last 2 weekends have been filled with what I like to call Greg’s side hustle. He loves finding old crap ( sorry to the crap but it IS old), it always seems to be in a far away place and buying it. But that is only part of the fun. The REAL fun for him is loading all of us in the truck grabbing a trailer and sometimes a friend or two to help and going to get said piece of crap. I guess I should be fair, it isn’t crap to him. Beauty in the eye of the beholder I suppose. Where I look at something and don’t want to waste my time he sees a “good ol’ beast” as he likes to put it and that it seems to still have a purpose. I wonder if there is an symbolism with his own life there? Hmmm.. that’s just me over analyzing. Back to the point, I guess I should introduce the biggest member of our fleet. At this point I believe a dealer plate would be cheaper for us but oh well.
A little over a year ago Greg decided he wanted something a little bigger to pull his heavy equipment with. He showed me pictures of what he was looking at I half paid attention because he is ALWAYS showing me pictures of something he wants. I don’t think either one of us actually realized just how flipping huge this thing was. The day he brought it home he was like a 16 year old kid. You could not wipe the smile off his face. He was SO happy. On the drive home he just kept saying ” You aren’t going to believe how big it is” well…. he was right. When he pulled up the kids instantly fell in love. I need a bit more time to get used to this new behemoth that was quickly becoming the “other woman” . He looked at this truck like all his dreams had come true. I’ll admit, it took me a solid 6 months before I could look at it and not shake my head. Wes named it Monster Truck right away and it seems to have stuck. The rest of us call it Graybeard and yes, we are that weird family that names their vehicles!
As with all vehicles that are “new to you” there were some issues and kinks that needed to be worked out. Truth be told the dealer we bought it from flat out lied when he used the phrase “mechanically sound” we learned that this truck had been one of the earlier builds by the Diesel Brothers before it was sold to another person and then to the dealer we came to get it from. We have worked through a lot of issues with it but we are finally to a place where it is running great *knock on wood* and pulling it’s weight, literally. There were times when Greg was ready to throw in the towel, finding someone to work on it is harder than you would think. Every one wants it in their shop but they all seem too afraid to touch it and actually fix any problems. Factor in Greg’s health and we both were ready at some point to give it a viking funeral. BUT finally, finally we are enjoying it to it’s full capacity and it has been great.
About a year ago, we took it to California to pick up a antique semi. That was the first trip that I actually started to like it. The room inside is great and my favorite part of all is that when you passed semi’s the wind off of them didn’t push you around. Score 1 for Graybeard. I even got to drive it a little and help Greg out. I’ve been trying to step it up and help with driving loads and backing trailers. (quickest way to start a fight? Take 2 hot heads and have one driving the trailer and the other trying to “guide” them backing up … Kaboom.) But I’m getting better and will with more practice!
Well jumping forward to these last 2 weeks, Greg had purchased another semi, a parts truck if you will and we needed to get it. We had bought it awhile ago but due to the issues I mentioned above we needed to get those addressed before we hauled anything. SO we got those fixed and went about making plans to go pick up this other semi. We decided to enlist the help of our awesome friends and make an adventure out of it. With Greg’s back it’s easier on him if we don’t have too much in one day. We decided to drive down the night before, sleep and then get up the next day and load it up and such. Little did we know that mother nature was laughing at our plans. By the time we had stuff packed and everything loaded on the trailers it was snowing and sticking. Not my favorite road conditions to travel in. Even in that beast. We were in Graybeard with the gooseneck trailer and the backhoe and our friends were in our other truck pulling a 40 ft trailer we rented to haul the semi back with.
It was a long drive but we made it. The next day was loading time and the boys had a blast using the backhoe and winch to help get that semi onto the trailer.
Greg loves this. He is in his element most when we are doing stuff like this. I not so secretly think that it isn’t necessarily the acquisition of things that he enjoys. I think it is more that he loves looking for items, meeting the people they belong to, the loading/unloading, the adventure of it all. Even though it is hard on his body and hard on me ( I’m tired of stuff coming and never leaving) I can’t deny that when he is doing this he seems most happy. There is a joy and a peace and happiness about him that is almost contagious. I love seeing that and so, we keep ending up with more stuff.. But honestly , how could you do what he does in this video below and not have that put a smile on your face?!
This last weekend our adventures took us to a tiny town above Elko called Mountain City. This town was about 15 houses a store and a bar. Oh and a post office. The entire 3 hours we were there loading I didn’t see a single person. I did however have a very friendly little dog come hang out with me for a bit. Naturally my true crime lovin’, over active imagination kicked into high gear. It seemed really weird that I saw no one. It was eerily quiet, the only sound was us and the occasional car that drove through the main highway. I finally did see 1 person. It was right after the sun went down. 1 lonely person that was just walking down the side of the road. I looked away for a second and they were gone. By that point the fun was over for me and I just wanted to get the heck outta there. My creep-o-meter was going nuts.. Greg finally did his last strap check and we were ready to go! Thankfully we could put that eerie place behind us. * side note, I’m sure Mountain City is a great place, I know it’s just how I perceive things, but then again…..maybe not you can never be too careful*
We also stopped for lunch at a fun place called Mattie’s Taphouse and Grill. They had a dang good French dip! It was good to stop and get out of the truck for a bit we were starting to get a little silly at that point. See below pic for evidence, Ha.
These adventures are just that, an adventure. We never really know how it’s gonna go something always happens but I like to think we are getting pretty good and a little quicker at our jobs. I’m learning skills I never thought I’d have and doing things I never thought I’d do. It is teaching our kids how to be around heavy equipment and Wesley already loves every piece of machinery he lays his eyes on. While i’ll admit I get frustrated sometimes when we do this, it’s mainly because it puts all the things on my to-do list back even further, we are making memories as a family and as a couple and that is worth it. Making memories after all is what life should be about! Onto the next adventure!
Till next time!
~ Laura
Life, Party of 4 