Hi friends! I know, you have all been waiting by your computer for days for my next post, forsaking food and sleep...just kidding! Well, I got a little caught up in life this week, a lot of crazy things happened. First, let me begin by saying that I love my husband. And then let me tell you this: he is driving me crazy. Not all the time, just when he buys tractors that we don't need. Like last weekend.
We spent last Sunday driving to the Iowa-80 truck stop (world's largest truck stop -woo hoo) to meet a guy that was driving a tractor from California to Michigan. Well, he didn't actually drive the tractor all the way from California, it was on a trailer. But anyway, the tractor was for sale and Joey wanted it so he told the guy we would meet him in Iowa rather than driving all the way to Michigan. So off we go with our empty trailer up to Iowa. Not long after leaving the driveway, Joey tells me that he didn't actually get the guy to lower the price to the amount of cash that he took out of the bank and we needed to get $600 more in cash on the way. Well, two banks later and the ATM would not allow Joey any more cash for the day. So on to two more banks, with the trailer in tow (which doesn't fit through the ATM drive-through.) Finally, I broke down and let him take money from my account to get the rest he needed. And let me tell you that I was not keen on the idea of buying this tractor before we left the house, and by this time I was feeling even worse about it. So after meeting the guy and spending a loooong time getting a 2-ton tractor that doesn't run from one trailer onto another, we handed over the cash and were back on our way to good, old Illinois (where people know how to drive...unlike in a state I won't name.) Well, a few tears and a few miles later, we stopped at the Farm and Fleet so I could get some new rain boots for working in the garden. (There had to be something to make this trip worthwhile!)
After the Farm and Fleet, we continued on home, being careful with the trailer. We got to the other side of Galesburg and were driving along a two lane highway when Joey looks out of my window and asks if I see anything flying off the trailer. He pulls off to the side of the road and we got out to see what it was. It was the trailer tire. It was gone. The rubber was completely gone and we had been driving on a metal rim. And the tire next to it looked like it was going flat. So now we were in the middle of nowhere at 7 o'clock on a Sunday. What were we supposed to do?! We pulled onto a side road and Joey called a friend who lived about half an hour away to ask if he had any spare trailer tires. No luck. So we did the only thing we could do. We pulled up to a nice-looking farm and knocked on the door. Here's where the only lucky thing of the day happened: the man who opened the door was the nicest guy you could imagine. He let us leave the trailer in his drive while we looked for a new tire. He told us if we couldn't find anything that night we could leave it and come back during the week. So we went back up to Galesburg and searched a couple places and finally found a tire with a rim at Walmart. The tractor got $80 more expensive. When we finally got back to the farm where we left the tractor, the guy had already jacked up the trailer, removed the dented rim and left us a can of fix-a-flat and a flashlight since it was now dark out. He came out to help and we had it all fixed in a couple minutes. The new tire was smaller than the others but it would have to work. We thanked him profusely and went on our way, hoping to make it home without any more problems. His kindness was the best part of the day.
We drove home slowly and arrived at 10 pm. The only thing we had eaten all day were some cinnamon rolls for breakfast and some chex mix from the Farm and Fleet. Joey told me, as we dragged ourselves into the house, "I know you don't like me, but at least we have some crazy adventures together, right?" And he was right. Somehow, even though I was mad about the purchase of the tractor, and he was feeling guilty about buying it, and we were both exhausted and hungry, we never lost our cool when we blew the trailer tire. We were laughing as we roamed the aisles of the Wal-mart. We even joked about all of our bad luck with trailers in the past, thinking of all the things that could go wrong if we ever lived in a trailer. So even though it was a rough day, it was still a good one. We met a new friend and we proved that even if we drive each other crazy every once in a while, we can work together to get out of a sticky situation and make each other laugh in the process. So at the end of the day, I guess we're stuck with each other. And I'm pretty happy about that. (Just don't tell Joey, I'm going to see how long I can use his guilt to my advantage...)
We spent last Sunday driving to the Iowa-80 truck stop (world's largest truck stop -woo hoo) to meet a guy that was driving a tractor from California to Michigan. Well, he didn't actually drive the tractor all the way from California, it was on a trailer. But anyway, the tractor was for sale and Joey wanted it so he told the guy we would meet him in Iowa rather than driving all the way to Michigan. So off we go with our empty trailer up to Iowa. Not long after leaving the driveway, Joey tells me that he didn't actually get the guy to lower the price to the amount of cash that he took out of the bank and we needed to get $600 more in cash on the way. Well, two banks later and the ATM would not allow Joey any more cash for the day. So on to two more banks, with the trailer in tow (which doesn't fit through the ATM drive-through.) Finally, I broke down and let him take money from my account to get the rest he needed. And let me tell you that I was not keen on the idea of buying this tractor before we left the house, and by this time I was feeling even worse about it. So after meeting the guy and spending a loooong time getting a 2-ton tractor that doesn't run from one trailer onto another, we handed over the cash and were back on our way to good, old Illinois (where people know how to drive...unlike in a state I won't name.) Well, a few tears and a few miles later, we stopped at the Farm and Fleet so I could get some new rain boots for working in the garden. (There had to be something to make this trip worthwhile!)
After the Farm and Fleet, we continued on home, being careful with the trailer. We got to the other side of Galesburg and were driving along a two lane highway when Joey looks out of my window and asks if I see anything flying off the trailer. He pulls off to the side of the road and we got out to see what it was. It was the trailer tire. It was gone. The rubber was completely gone and we had been driving on a metal rim. And the tire next to it looked like it was going flat. So now we were in the middle of nowhere at 7 o'clock on a Sunday. What were we supposed to do?! We pulled onto a side road and Joey called a friend who lived about half an hour away to ask if he had any spare trailer tires. No luck. So we did the only thing we could do. We pulled up to a nice-looking farm and knocked on the door. Here's where the only lucky thing of the day happened: the man who opened the door was the nicest guy you could imagine. He let us leave the trailer in his drive while we looked for a new tire. He told us if we couldn't find anything that night we could leave it and come back during the week. So we went back up to Galesburg and searched a couple places and finally found a tire with a rim at Walmart. The tractor got $80 more expensive. When we finally got back to the farm where we left the tractor, the guy had already jacked up the trailer, removed the dented rim and left us a can of fix-a-flat and a flashlight since it was now dark out. He came out to help and we had it all fixed in a couple minutes. The new tire was smaller than the others but it would have to work. We thanked him profusely and went on our way, hoping to make it home without any more problems. His kindness was the best part of the day.
We drove home slowly and arrived at 10 pm. The only thing we had eaten all day were some cinnamon rolls for breakfast and some chex mix from the Farm and Fleet. Joey told me, as we dragged ourselves into the house, "I know you don't like me, but at least we have some crazy adventures together, right?" And he was right. Somehow, even though I was mad about the purchase of the tractor, and he was feeling guilty about buying it, and we were both exhausted and hungry, we never lost our cool when we blew the trailer tire. We were laughing as we roamed the aisles of the Wal-mart. We even joked about all of our bad luck with trailers in the past, thinking of all the things that could go wrong if we ever lived in a trailer. So even though it was a rough day, it was still a good one. We met a new friend and we proved that even if we drive each other crazy every once in a while, we can work together to get out of a sticky situation and make each other laugh in the process. So at the end of the day, I guess we're stuck with each other. And I'm pretty happy about that. (Just don't tell Joey, I'm going to see how long I can use his guilt to my advantage...)
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