Keeping It Real

Here in blogland the majority of bloggers try to keep their blogs positive, informative and/or uplifting.  I know that's what I try to do because we are bombarded with negativity and sad news on a daily basis especially if you're a news watcher so who wants more of that?

Now, as in anything, there are exceptions to the majority but I simply choose to read the more positive types of blogs just because that's more my style and more to my liking.  But, this isn't about what I like to read and what I don't.

This is about balance.

This is about keeping it real.

To some, it may appear that my life is fun, exciting, glamorous even because I get to travel, see different parts of our vast and varied countryside, live in a fifth wheel and be continually camping.  Now, while I am lucky enough to get to do all those things, I still have to deal with real life issues just like everyone else.

Such as...

Broken back windows on a brand new truck.  Twice!  Thanks to a new hitch, the fifth wheel and a shorter wheel-based truck.

Here we are in a strange town and now we need to find someone to replace the window for us.  Twice!

Thankfully, in each town some locals helped us find a glass business that could replace it for us.  Some $800 dollars later for both windows (sad face).

Needless to say, we are both pretty sure that we won't forget to move the fifth wheel from the towing position to the maneuvering position from now on.  (fingers crossed!)

And about the hitch...

We had to purchase a new hitch because our old hitch would not fit the bed of the new truck.  One would think that a new hitch would mean new and improved, right?  Yea, not so much.  We ended up having to buy an extender that was welded onto the tongue of the fifth wheel.  This gave us ten more inches away from the back window when towing but we still need to be cautious when making turns.  And when we get close to the RV Park or wherever we're staying we need to find a place to pull over, CountryBoy gets out of the truck, pulls a pin on the hitch, gets back in the truck, pulls forward until the fifth wheel locks into the maneuvering position, gets back out of the truck, puts the pin back in, gets back in the truck, then we can hopefully pull into the RV Park and get backed into our spot without any more busted back windows.  Needless to say, I'm not a big fan of the new hitch.

We also had to have the fiberglass on the corner of the fifth wheel repaired.  All the above came to about $975.  Ouch!

Meanwhile, between the purchase of the new truck and the mishaps of the back window we listed our house, some 2000+ miles away, for sale and it sold it two days. Yay!  Thank you Lord!

I had sold a lot of the furniture before I joined CountryBoy on the road but that still left a ton of stuff to be dealt with. And I mean a ton, between the house and barn.... yikes! Thankfully, I have an amazing family who not only took care of the place and the yard work for fifteen months they also dealt with all the stuff when we decided to list it.  Packed it, donated it, sold it or stored it.  It's a good thing all that was done before it listed cuz none of us ever dreamed it would only be on the market for two days!

But now I'm trying to deal with the realtor and the closing agent some 2000+ miles away via cell phone while I'm at work where there is to be no cell phone use.  ugh.

Anyway, it all worked out and CountryBoy and I took some time off work to snatch a few things out of the barn that we wanted to keep for our future farm so we were able to take care of some of the questions and paperwork while there.

Which leads me to the next issue...

We asked a coworker of ours to cat sit for us while we were away and we told him he could use my Jeep to go back & forth to work and to go to town to get some groceries since he did not have a vehicle.

We left Sunday morning and the following morning I get a phone call from him saying he wrecked the Jeep.  Initially, we were told the damage was a few scratches on the hood and a busted windshield.

Here's the reality...

Thankfully, he was not injured but my Jeep?  Not so much.  It's totaled.

Not only that, vehicle insurance follows the vehicle so our insurance company had to pay and we lost out on our safe driver discount for five years.  FIVE!  Even though neither of us were driving the vehicle. Seems to me that whoever was driving the vehicle should lose their safe driver discount on their insurance even though the vehicle may not be listed on their policy.  And since neither of us were driving the vehicle we are still, in fact, safe drivers.  Yet, we lose that status and discount because the insurance follows the vehicle.  Really?  Then it should be a safe vehicle discount not safe driver discount.  Morons.

I digress.

Even though our insurance company gave us a fair amount for the Jeep it is still not enough money to replace it unless I get lucky enough to find another Jeep around the same year, make and model in whatever location I happen to be at and in that good of condition, er, previous condition.  And, since we just bought the truck and have a truck payment we refuse to have another vehicle payment.  So, I am without a vehicle now.

I'm still sad.  I loved that Jeep.

But, the guy was kind enough to pay us for the loss of our discount and hopefully he will help with the difference so that I can have wheels again.

Now, while all this is going on (the sale of the house, traveling, dealing with a wrecked vehicle and insurance companies some 2000+ miles away) we are also trying to tag the new truck with out of state tags.  Vehicle purchased in Arizona, trying to tag & title it in Florida.  ugh.  We watched my sister-in-law deal with this same issue several months prior and the nightmare she went through now here we were doing the same exact thing.  To add fuel to the fire, the dealer titled in it Arizona even though we requested to tag & title it in Florida.  Thankfully, I finally got hold of an extremely helpful individual at the DMV in Florida and she worked with me via emails and cell phone and we finally got the tag & title transferred.  Yay!

A few weeks after we got back from our trip we found out we were getting laid off at the end of the week.  (Yay!  We were both ready!)  That same day CountryBoy got a call to go to another job in Texas. Yay, again!  What a blessing!

But, now, that opened up a new can of worms.  See, CountryBoy pulls the fifth wheel with the truck and I pulled the cargo trailer with the Jeep.  Only now, I don't have a Jeep (sad face).

So now what?  How are we going to get to the next job which we need to be at in less than a week?  We did some checking and we were able to have another hitch welded onto an existing hitch at the back of the fifth wheel that was sturdy enough to pull the cargo trailer.  Whew!  Thankfully that was an easy fix.

So once the hitch was welded on, the back window replaced (for the first time) we were able to be on our way to the next job some 15 hours away.

We left immediately after the hitch extender was welded on and the fiberglass repaired.  We drove for a few hours then decided to stop for the night and get something to eat.

The entire next day was spent driving. 

Mind you, the truck is pulling both the fifth wheel and the cargo trailer so when we needed diesel we had to look for truck stops where you can just pull through.  It's impossible to back two trailers connected together at the same time.  One goes one way and the other goes the opposite way.

So, about mid-day we pulled into a truck stop and were notified by an employee that we had a flat tire.

Oh goody!  How long it had been flat we don't know but from the looks of things it might've been a while and the potential danger.... I don't even wanna go there.  We were so grateful that we were safe and that nothing more than a shredded tire and broken wheel well was all that happened.  Thanks to many prayers being said for our safe travel.  Ah, the power of prayer!

We were able to have the tire replaced at the truck stop and be on our way ($150 bucks later).

We arrived the next morning to our new location and that's when we proceeded to bust the back window out again for the second time.  sigh.

We have moved again since his previous employer refused to pay him per diem (which is a good chuck of change) because of the sale of our house.  The same day CountryBoy drug up (quit) he got a call from another employer wanting him to start work on Monday.  It was Friday afternoon.  Thankfully, the next job was only a little over an hour away and we were able to find a place to stay.

Blessed again!  Although, I think CountryBoy is ready for some time off and a real vacation after all this, ha!

Sorry for the long and rather wordy post but there ya have it, the reality of my fun, exciting and glamorous life!

Actually, it usually is fun and exciting.  Glamorous?  I wouldn't go that far, ha.  But, we are blessed to have this opportunity to travel, be adventurous, see the countryside all while saving money and working towards making our dreams come true.  A dream of purchasing an old farmhouse and farm one day; of beekeeping, gardening, gathering fresh eggs, fishing in our pond and tending to the farm animals.  ahhh, we can't wait!

I have procrastinated on writing this post.  In fact, I started writing it several weeks ago but ended up deleting it. Like I said, I like to keep this blog fun, inspiring, positive, and sometimes informative with lots of photos.  But, I also want to keep it real.  So, I had to make myself sit down, relive the past few months and write about it in order to keep it real and balanced. 

So if there's one thing you take away from this post I hope it's that you discover that we all go through struggles at some point in our lives. Even those of us in blogland that tend to post only the pretty side of life (wink). And, while it may appear that someone has a wonderfully perfect life know that they have to deal with what ever life dishes out just like you and just like the rest of us.

Life is a Journey

There will be good days and bad days; good times and bad times; stress and no stress.

Try and make the best of every situation.

Handle with prayer.

All these situations help mold you as a person.

So, hang on, keep it real and enjoy the ride on this thing we call life!

Till next time my friends...