Well, we figured out that we needed a truck, and started looking in all the usual places: Craigslist, Autotrader, Used Vehicle Dealerships, Classifieds, Cars.com, random Googling, neighbors garages*, etc.

*That part is a joke.

Turns out, just like everything else since this pandemic started, trucks are real spendy.

We found some potential candidates, so I drove an hour to try three of them. No go.

Then a different day drove 45 minutes to try another one. Little bit of a mixup with that one. (Got excited about the price of one truck when I thought it applied to a different truck that was pricier. 🙄)

Then the whole crowd got in on trying a truck that was jacked up so high we had to help each other up—turned out to be a little too much truck for us.

Finally, we found a dump truck to try in Homer.

On the way, the dog played the trick she likes of opening the electric windows because she is SO FUNNY*, so I put the window lock on. A few moments later, she suddenly SHOT FORWARD from the back seat barking like she was scared of something.

*Sarcasm

After a confusing moment of investigation, it turned out to be a bee, which flew on to Anna’s leg. Anna leaned down to get it off her leg only to discover that I had accidentally window locked her hair in place and she couldn’t lean down.

Cue ridiculous kerfluffle that eventually ended with the bee back outside, the dog back in the backseat, no injuries, and the two of us laughing until we were crying.

On that note, let’s go buy a truck.

We got there and the truck was HUGE and stick shift. It had…uh…been a while since I had driven stick, and I didn’t want to jam the gears in front of the truck owner, so I begged Anna to be the one to test drive.

The truck was big for us, but the price was good and the allure of a dump truck was really hard to resist every time I thought about shoveling horse crap.

Anna told the guy we liked it, but it might be too big. Offhandedly she asked whether he had anything smaller. It just so happened he did! He told us the only thing was he hadn’t planned to sell it, so he didn’t have it ready to go. Still we could test drive it if we wanted.

We test drove it, and he was right—it wasn’t in as good of shape, but the size was manageable (still big) and THAT is how we ended up buying our truck.

The drive home where it conked out on the side of the road is a different story, but maybe not for the website… One tow and it trip to the mechanic, and it’s good as new. Well, maybe not new… Actually definitely not new.

Anyway, look at that beauty dump!!!