Our First Wandering

Who knew our first Wandering Whitehurst adventure would begin before we even owned our trailer? 

We currently drive a small sedan and a midsize SUV. Combined, these two vehicles can tow about 6000 pounds. You may not realize this, but very few families of four would ever consider living in an RV much less one that weighs less than 6000 pounds. So we identified our new desired tow vehicle and went to work searching for it.  Unfortunately everyone else wants this same vehicle as well.

After missing out on 3 vehicles to other faster, more risk taking buyers, we found our target.  The owner promised he wouldn't sell it out from under us while it was being inspected, as a different seller had done. I received the call from the auto shop regarding the inspection and felt a big green light to buy. The only problems? It was 8 hours away in Indiana, Dad had a full schedule of shifts coming up, shipping was going to cost us $800 and 2 weeks, and LJ (15 months old) and I were sick with colds. How could we get this vehicle in our possession before a better offer came up?  Well, you throw 2 days worth of clothing in a suitcase, rent a cheap car, transfer 2 car seats over, pack a ton of snacks and an iPod with cartoons on it (yes we are the only people on planet earth that do not own a tablet), purchase certified checks and try to get out of town. Crazy? Absolutely! But don't ever try to stop a determined pregnant women from buying the truck of her dreams. 

So here I am sitting between my two baby boys as they sleep peacefully in the back of our brand new to us 2001 Ford Excursion Diesel in the middle of nowhere Illinois... Or Indiana... Or Iowa after a combined 12 hours of driving with about 4 more to go. But she is beautiful! With low miles and a beast of an engine with towing capacity of up to 10000 pounds I am one happy, tired and sick Mama.

The irony of the situation has just hit me. In the process of "downsizing" we have just purchased the largest SUV on the market which dwarfs our current 7 passenger SUV. So we have dubbed her "BB". We are undecided if it's for Black Beast or Black Bear. But as 3 year old AJ would say, " I like my car because she is loud. Very very loud vrooom, vrooom!"

P.S. On our way home we got the chance to stay with Jon's second family from childhood in Iowa for a few days. We got to visit a dairy farm where the boys learned about the entire process from bottle feeding baby cows to making butter.