Maiden voyage of our new pickup

Maiden voyage of our new tow vehicle

Couple weeks ago I was minding my own business driving around the Centralia area. I happen to drive by that Dodge dealer and noticed to brand-new Dodge pickup sit and out front I had been wondering for quite some time about my old pickup truck you it wasn’t that old but I was having problems with it. It seemed every time that we went somewhere or traveled somewhere a trouble light came on her there was some kind of a problem.

I guess the final straw was when we went to Wenatchee to watch Peyton’s baseball tournament. On the way over the truck seem to perform just fine but on is soon as we pulled out to head for home yet another trouble light came on.

I called the Dodge dealer here in Aberdeen and asked them take a look at my truck and of course they couldn’t get me in for an appointment for several days. So on a suggestion from a Shawn I stopped to cut rate auto parts and had them check the trouble like to find out what was going on with it. It showed that I was having some kind of a fault with the thermostat which made sense because my temperature Going up and down in the truck. Now why am I telling you all about my old truck.

Brings me back to driving through Centralia and I spot these two new Dodge pickup sit in on the lot.

I noticed they had a special price in the window and it seemed like it was awfully good pricing. Almost too good to believe so I figured there was a bunch of rebates and that I would be able to qualify for. I noticed one was silver and the other one was the dark mineral gray which is always been my favorite color as I decided to give him a call the next morning and see what they had to say.

While on the phone I learn about all the different rebates that they were offering and a couple of factory incentives back to the dealership as these were 2012 3500 pickups. I did some calculations and crunched a bunch of numbers and realize that this was a very good opportunity in a very good deal. The dealership promised that they would give me a fair price for my trade-in so I went for. We drove down Saturday morning and within a couple hours we were driving our new truck home. Now all I have to do is get ready for camping.

It seems that a lot of dealerships want to sell you new trailer hitches a new fifth wheel hitches but not many want to put in an existing hitch to there’s not a whole lot of money in it. After several calls and a lot of frustration I finally found a dealership for Paul right in the Olympia area. They agreed to install my hitch for $300. They also had the electrical plug relocation kit in stock so I went ahead and bought one of those also and put that in myself. Now the truck is ready to go at all we need to do is have a decent weekend to be a will to go try it out.

Mother’s Day weekend was fast approaching and we decided that it was time to drive back down to Woodburn Oregon and stay at the Portland Woodburn RV Park. We love this park because it’s just right across the fence from the outlet stores and Lori can just shop all day if she wants to. It’s also not that far from Washington Square which is a huge mall and has lots of different types of stores. Now to just find the time to go down there and guess what, the weather started get in better pretty soon they were forecasting 80° weather it was time to go.

As the day neared I realized I had drivers training scheduled up in Auburn Washington that day. It would be a long day as I had to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning drive up to Auburn, take the take the course, drive back home, and then hook get the trailer ready to go in head South.

I got back home at 3 o’clock Lori had everything loaded and we were ready to go Maggie was running around the yard just wait for opportunity to get the truck. She loves to go traveling and loves to camp. Soon we were on the road headed south and 75 to 80° temperatures depending on where you’re at.

We stopped at a rest area just down south of centrally and took a couple minutes to check out the truck in the make sure everything was working right.

My initial observations on the new truck were great I’m very happy with what I’ve got now, the truck rides well, it has a lot more power, and the gas mileage seems to be a little bit better than my 07 Dodge was. I wasn’t sure why there was so much difference but I soon realized I had made a good decision in buying this truck. Lori and I both were enjoying the trip is as wasn’t Maggie she had a full backseat now to sit on and relax.

It was very surprising as we went to Portland, you it’s usually very busy through that entire area and it takes quite a while. Today there was hardly any traffic we stated the freeway speed all the way through town and state on I5 all the way south. It was a welcome surprise as we are still getting used to how the brakes worked on the new trailer controller. Soon we were pulling into the Woodburn RV Park and had our site all set up. The truck was easy to hook up and unhook. Not much difference from the other truck except for’s it’s a little bit taller. It was nice that they put us down on the end of the park near the dog park giving Maggie a lot of room to run around whenever she got the chance.

It was just a little after 8 o’clock and Lori thought the store stayed open until nine so we walked across to the was a very nice evening and decided to just check things out. We found out the stores a closed at 8 o’clock in the sidewalk over see if we could find ice cream at any of the fast food places right there in that little area. But it was for not because none of them had ice cream, one fast food place carries milkshakes all the time had a broken machine which upset Maggie quite a bit she was seen at the door waiting for somebody to come out that had a uniform on so she could take a bite cheek out to show her appreciation for their broken machine.

We settled in a relaxed for the evening and soon were your embed but it was pretty warm still and difficult to sleep for a while till the trailer cool down. Bright and early the next morning we were on the road after breakfast and headed to Washington Square.

Lori and I went to Macy’s and we found a dress for Lori and also some clothes for grandma Munson in the store. Lori was pretty happy about her fines wanted to continue looking just in case there was something else there. It was nearing lunchtime so we walked through the mall over to the cheesecake factory. It was already nearing 2 o’clock in the afternoon and as we walked and we could see the place was completely crowded with people. When I checked in it was good to be at least a 40 minute wait which was not something we wanted to do. We are Lord our heads walked off and decided that we were ago just get a quick sandwich back at the trailer.

After a quick lunch Maggie went there kennel and we walked across to the outlet stores had to do some serious shopping. It was now in the upper 80s but there was a lot of humidity now because of the approaching storm front. It didn’t take very long walking between the stores before I was pretty well worn out had relegated myself to sitting on benches wait for her to continue going through the stores. She did pretty good but she too was getting tired because of the heat. After spending a little bit more money and finding some neat buys we decided to call it an afternoon and headed back to the trailer.

Shortly after we returned to the trailer some people pulling a toy hauler pulled into the site next to us. We notice the plates on the truck and trailer bowls from South Carolina and we were intrigued that they could be that far away from home at this time of year. As they were setting up we engaged in some casual conversation a course Maggie played the routine of the outcome pet me and beautiful. We learned that this couple kneel and Mary were on a 49 state Odyssey. They had set out a little over six months ago and were going to ride the motorcycle which happened to be upon the Gold wing in every state in the in the 49 contiguous states.

Lori Maggie and I cooked up some nice hamburgers and enjoyed a nice Dinner that evening it was still in the 80s but it was very nice nose a light breeze made it very comfortable to sit outside and enjoy the evening. Soon we were talking again with Neil and Marion they came over and sat told us their stories of their travels with their trailer and truck and motorcycle. Seems right after they bought their toy hauler and set out on their journey, they started having all kinds of issues. It seemed like one thing after another would break down requiring more warranty work as they traveled. They driven up from southern Oregon today and while in route lost their water pump. As a were setting up they turned on the air conditioning and went for a ride on their Gold wing. Upon their return they found out that the air-conditioning was pumping out hot air instead of cold and now they needed more repairs. We had a great conversation with him throughout the night and was amazed by some of their stories as they traveled across the United States. They’re going to stay around this area for a while and then there headed to Alaska to be part of the caravan before they start to work their way back across the top of the United States and some portions of Canada. We realized it was getting late and everyone was tired so was time to turn in for the night and said our goodbyes.

Sunday morning I made Lori rectus for Mother’s Day, and sat enjoying our coffee for the morning. It was still warm outside almost 70°, so made it hard to leave. We can see the clouds on the horizon a new that the reins and some when were coming our way but were really surprised at how nice it was outside. We got all loaded up and as soon as we were leaving the park Maggie was already asleep she’d had a very busy weekend.

I guess the only problem that we had all weekend was Saturday afternoon when Maggie and I decided to walk over to Starbucks is was just on the other side of the parking lot from where we were staying. We went into the drive-through lane to order a copy to take back to the trailer and nobody would answers on the intercom. After several minutes finally somebody yelled from the other window that they don’t serve pedestrians in the drive-through lane even though there were no cars nobody around no problem. I walked up to the lady and asked her what the problem was that I couldn’t come inside because of the dog. She explained that their liabilities will not allow us to be served at the drive-through window and went on in quite length about the rules and regulations at which time I stopped or said you know you could of had our drinks ready by the time you got finished telling me this. The lady smiled and told me that I can come in with dog and if anyone asked I could to say it was a service dog. I told her that after two seconds anybody would realize that Maggie is not a service dog if she is still a little wild being so young. I also explained her that I feel comfortable saying something that wasn’t true just to get in the order coffee she turned and walked away for me at that point. I intern walked away from her and didn’t buy any coffee I was now in a pretty foul mood. I got overwritten later we went and had a cup coffee anyway Maggie did find she said outside well or a wedding got our coffee it just was aggravating with the way she was acting.

On her way home Sunday, we always like to stop in Hazel Dell, at the Safeway store. I fueled up Lori and Maggie walked across and got there walk out of the way before I was done. At the other end of the parking lot is a nice Starbucks or we can sit outside watch traffic and enjoy the company of each other. We enjoyed our coffee and soon it was time to continue heading north we could tell we were getting close as soon as we started to head back for the truck there were a few sprinkles dropping on her head. It was still pretty warm outside the mid-70s and that surprised me. But of course as you get closer to Grays Harbor you start noticing the temperature gauge dropping like a rock and soon we were in the upper 50s with heavy rain as we neared our home. It only took a few minutes to get everything unloaded and soon we were inside relaxing and reminiscing about our fun weekend on her maiden voyage trip of the new truck.

Next trip is over the Memorial Day weekend were hauling supplies over to Mark and Ambers house and Cheney and can spend four days over in that area when I can spend it all with the those two because we have some other things we want to see.  See you on a road in be safe.