Well, the insurance company totaled our truck.  The damage to the sleeper is really expensive to fix and it pushed the bill over the edge.  So I had to get to Denver to pick up our trailer and empty all of our stuff out of the truck.  I was not really sure how this was going to happen since it would take us a couple of weeks to get the insurance payout, buy a replacement truck and get it ready to haul loads. Then a friend of mine, who also is leased on to Farm2Fleet, made a joke on Facebook about trying to get me to fly to Seattle and pick up a day cab truck for him that he had bought in an auction and drive it back to Chattanooga.  So I said, heck yeah, I’ll do it.

I flew out to Seattle last Friday, arriving at 11 Am and took a cab to the truck,  everything seemed fine until I put the key in the ignition and found out the batteries were stone cold dead.  Somebody had opened the door a couple of weeks ago and left it open draining the batteries.  After hours of trying to jump start the truck it was determined the batteries needed to be replaced.  Doing this with mobile service is just stupidly expensive and I felt so sorry for Derek (the trucks owner) as the service call ended up costing $1,200 for 4 batteries.  With the new batteries the truck fired right up and I drove up to my parents house to spend the evening and Saturday with them.  My daughters hope chest has also been at my parents for a number of years and this allowed me to strap it to the back of the truck and haul it home.  After a great 36 hours I headed out bobtailing (no trailer) to Denver.  With a day cab, I have no sleeper so I have to stay in hotels each night.  The truck needs some work, there is an exhaust leak that makes it VERY loud, the A/C does not work and just outside of Missoula Montana, the tail lights fell off.   (luckily still attached by the wires) so I got to Missoula just before dark and put the magic duck tape to work.

The Hope Chest strapped on

Duct tape to the rescue

I got to Denver on Tuesday morning and met my Son at the repair shop to empty out the truck.  It took us about two hours and we got everything loaded into the trailer.  So thankful for this boy.  It was pretty tough saying goodbye to the truck,  We really like this money pit but saying goodbye to my son was pretty easy because I will see him in a couple of weeks for his college graduation from Colorado State.  I headed out through Kansas and decided to go home through Memphis to look at a truck.  We have decided to buy another Volvo 780 as we love the ride, the room and how it drives.  The Volvo dealer in Memphis had two that matched our requirements.  We want 550,000 miles or less, a built in 12 volt refrigerator, I-shift (automatic) transmission and an APU (generator).  I got to Memphis Thursday morning and found what I think is our truck.  It is awesome.  Still working on putting a deal together so I will update soon.  Then I drove the final 300 miles home.  I cannot believe how slowly those 300 miles rolled by.  Got home on Thursday evening and Anne left Thursday Morning for Chicago and a girls weekend in Lake Geneva Wisconsin.  When she gets home on Monday it will have been the longest we have ever been apart.  I am not sure if I or the dogs are having a harder time with her being gone.

My ears should stop ringing from the loud exhaust by Sunday