- Thread starter
- #2,111
Ridgetop
Herd Master
DS2 encouraged us to take his truck "The Black Dragon" to Texas. It has a locking tonneau cover to hold our toolboxes and luggage, 4WD and duels in case of snow and ice, motorized extendable trailers, automatic extendable running boards, heated bucket seats with massage, a crew cab for extra passengers, coolers and the detritus of a long journey, and many extras. DH was thrilled at the idea of driving this sleek newer truck. On our trip to Texas in DS2's truck we found that driving a new truck with gadgets with which you are not familiar has its drawbacks. Luckily the owner's manual (all 2000 pages in fine print) was neatly tucked in the glove compartment.
The first drawback came (many times) as we loaded the truck. Every time you opened any cab door the large running boards slid silently out. This was fine when getting into or out of the truck but when loading the back seat they slammed into our shins. We developed a habit of opening the rear door and jumping backwards to avoid more bruises.
The Black Dragon had been "raised" by a former owner and ginormous tires added. This looked cool and had I been 6'6" tall would have posed no problem. Since I am much shorter, and have a gimpy knee, I prayed each time I hopped up to grab the cab handle and pull myself inside that I would not miss the catch and fall to the ground wiggling like an upside down turtle. Thoughtfully, I added a folding stool to the back seat of the cab. This came in handy later.
I left DS1 and DH to load the toolboxes I had carefully packed into the truck. I did not oversee this operation which turned out to be a mistake later.
I had heard some loud arguments and cursing from the men as they struggled with the tonneau cover which proved to have a difficult lock. First they could not get it unlocked and opened to load. Then they discovered they could not get it closed since the long pull strap had apparently broken off at some time. This necessitated someone climbing into the truck over all the luggage to pull the cover far enough back to be able to close and lock it. More arguments ensued as they finally figured out that the lock mechanism was lose and they needed to hold it in place to lock. A long piece of parachute cord was added to the broken pull strap to enable it to be closed. I remained in our room packing suitcases since interfering in "Men's Work" has consequences. Once the large suitcases containing our cold weather work clothes were packed they put them, the box of boots, and a case of water there too. Since we were not sure about the water proofness of the tonneau cover I put large garbage bags on the suitcases. The back seat held my computer, a small cooler, a blanket, wine, our overnight case, my knitting bag, a roll of paper towels, a small travel pillow, my down vest, and about a million coats ranging from lightweight windbreakers to heavy down filled snow gear. We were ready for all weather conditions. Marv placed his cowboy hat on the dashboard and we were ready to roll. 
Leaving at 8 am we congratulated ourselves on our ability to get out early. This lasted until we hit commuter traffic ad re remembered why we usually eft either 2 hours earlier or later than 8 am. Once on the open road we made good time and gas mileage without a trailer to slow us down. DH was going 70 in an effort to make it to Texas in 2 days to eliminate a 3rd night in a motel in the road.
As we drove into the night DH questioned whether the GPS was taking us the northern route or through El Paso. Since the GPS wasn't up to answering questions, I needed a light to check the map. As I fumbled for my cell phone DH reached up to turn on the overhead light in the truck. There was a soft rumbling as the moonroof cover slid open. "Oops" said DH as he reached up to close it. The entire moon roof slid open and frigid air rushed into the truck.
"Oops" said DH again, fumbling at the overhead controls. I slapped his hands away. "Don't push anything else!" I said, "You don't know what the other buttons do!"
"Ejection seats?" DH suggested and we broke into laughter.
With the wind whistling into the cab as we hurtled down the freeway, I found my cell phone and turned it on to find the owner's manual. 5 minutes later we attempted to close the moonroof. We seemed to find the right button and it finally slid shut but when we tried to close the moonroof cover it would not close. Finally, after opening the moonroof again and closing we realized that in our button pushing frenzy we had not closed it properly but had opened the moonroof vent preventing the cover from closing. Finally with everything secure we agreed not to push anymore buttons unless we looked them up first in the manual.
Now that we had identified the overhead light button, I continued to read the manual to see if thus vehicle was equipped with any other hidden surprises. I found the controls for the massaging sets and we played with these for a while. The seats not only massage your back but also your buttocks. This would keep our behinds from falling asleep on long trips.
Next we tried to find a new country station since we were losing ours. This truck was not equipped with Sirius radio! A major flaw in cross country trips! no Willie's Roadhouse, no Golden Oldies, no Fox news, no Country music at all.
We suffered through until we hit eastern Arizona when the Navajo country station came on The songs were the same and listening to the announcements in Dineh, interspersed with English names and words, was interesting. We remembered how the Navajo were "wind talkers" during WWII. The Japanese thought the Navajo language was a code and couldn't break it. These brave Navajo soldiers died before being captured so they would not be forced to break the "code". I said a prayer for them as we travelled into New Mexico.
Thursday we discovered that we made better time than we thought since the clock in the truck was wrong! We pulled into our Sulphur Springs motel at 8pm. The next day we set out for our ranch. Our electrician had said the work was not finished so we hoped to catch him there. Calling him however we found that he was at another location. He could meet with us in the afternoon so we headed to the county seat, Quitman, to take care of our tax papers. In the afternoon we met up with John at the ranch to discuss the electric work he was doing for us on the septic and the other work DH wanted done so we could add electric to the barn and well pump this summer. We also met the tenants of the house and Cody, our cattle tenant. Apparently Larry and Cody had a good laugh over me calling Larry to "warn" him about Cody keeping a bull in the pastures. Larry had retired from full time ranching in Oklahoma where he had a large herd of cattle he raised for the organic market! When Larry told me that I had to laugh too. According to Larry they did nit think they would be out of the house as quickly as they had expected. When they rented it they had just sold their house in Sulphur Springs and were going to build in Yantis. Turns out that there has been a delay in acquiring the property they are purchasing from a cousin since it is tied up in probate. Although they anticipate the house building itself will only take about 6 months (they are putting up a metal building house) they don't know how ling the probate will take. Meanwhile they are living rough surrounded by all their boxes and furniture packed into 2 of the bedrooms. They are good tenants and have done a few small repairs themselves. We assured them there was no rush since we had to bring back sheep equipment corrals, and fence the perimeter for the guardian dogs. We are hoping they will be there for another year so the house isn't left vacant. That way we can get in and do our renovations before we move in the end of 2023, as well as doing the 6-7' perimeter fencing in stages.
Cody said he did not need the barn at all so we can also use it to store our fencing equipment as we bring it back over the next year. We will also be able to get in and repair the old tack room in the barn to get it ready for cabinets and shelving. It needs repairs and possibly a new floor in part. I have been considering putting the jugs in the barn and using the open covered areas on each side of the barn for outside shelter for the ewes and creep lambs. We will decide on that later. Knowing that we can use corral panels to keep the cattle out of the barn to protect our stuff is good news.
Saturday we went to the junior rodeo and commiserated with the parents about the sleet and icy rain on rodeo day after the balmy sunny Friday. On the way back to the motel we did some shopping, and took care of other business we had to do in Sulphur Springs. Then we got ready for dinner with our great niece Kylee who is living in Tyler with her fiancé. We had a nice dinner with them and his parents. She was very excited that relatives would be living only an hour away. Their wedding is next March. On Sunday DH watched the Super Bowl game. He had been afraid he would miss it. On Monday we went to Lindale to meet Baymule and help with the move.
Once we got everything moved to Groveton I unloaded my tools from the truck. Marv kept telling me he would unlock the tonneau cover "later" so I tried to do it myself with no luck. I did find out why they were cursing in California as they tried to deal with the tonneau cover lock. I decided to let the tail gate down and crawled in under the cover. Good plan except the tailgate was too far off the ground. Stepping on the hitch into the truck bed was not an option since the tonneau cover was still locked! But wait, remember my little folding stool? I go it out and managed to pull myself onto the tailgate. I had to do the army crawl on my elbows and squirm into the recess of the covered truck bed. I pulled out 3 tool boxes and brought them into the house. Going back for the other tool boxes I came up one short. I had the brad nailer, and the box with the drills BUT the box with the batteries and chargers was not there. Apparently DS1 thought that the small pile of boxes outside the shed door were the only ones going and did not load the essential batteries and chargers for them. 
As it turned out we ended up not having time to do the moldings and with the rain we couldn't paint them before installing them anyway. They will have to get done this summer when we go back to Texas. At least we got the T posts in and gate hung in time for the fence stringing party.
We had a wonderful time with Baymule and really enjoyed meeting her DD and DS. Great senses of humor and fun people. Looking forward to seeing them again in Texas. We didn't get down to Leander to see Erick. It turned out that Kris had been in Palm Springs until the day before we left! We drove to Dallas and met him and his mom, Beverly, for lunch on our way home. We got home Wednesday evening.
The first drawback came (many times) as we loaded the truck. Every time you opened any cab door the large running boards slid silently out. This was fine when getting into or out of the truck but when loading the back seat they slammed into our shins. We developed a habit of opening the rear door and jumping backwards to avoid more bruises.
The Black Dragon had been "raised" by a former owner and ginormous tires added. This looked cool and had I been 6'6" tall would have posed no problem. Since I am much shorter, and have a gimpy knee, I prayed each time I hopped up to grab the cab handle and pull myself inside that I would not miss the catch and fall to the ground wiggling like an upside down turtle. Thoughtfully, I added a folding stool to the back seat of the cab. This came in handy later.
I left DS1 and DH to load the toolboxes I had carefully packed into the truck. I did not oversee this operation which turned out to be a mistake later.
I had heard some loud arguments and cursing from the men as they struggled with the tonneau cover which proved to have a difficult lock. First they could not get it unlocked and opened to load. Then they discovered they could not get it closed since the long pull strap had apparently broken off at some time. This necessitated someone climbing into the truck over all the luggage to pull the cover far enough back to be able to close and lock it. More arguments ensued as they finally figured out that the lock mechanism was lose and they needed to hold it in place to lock. A long piece of parachute cord was added to the broken pull strap to enable it to be closed. I remained in our room packing suitcases since interfering in "Men's Work" has consequences. Once the large suitcases containing our cold weather work clothes were packed they put them, the box of boots, and a case of water there too. Since we were not sure about the water proofness of the tonneau cover I put large garbage bags on the suitcases. The back seat held my computer, a small cooler, a blanket, wine, our overnight case, my knitting bag, a roll of paper towels, a small travel pillow, my down vest, and about a million coats ranging from lightweight windbreakers to heavy down filled snow gear. We were ready for all weather conditions. Marv placed his cowboy hat on the dashboard and we were ready to roll. Leaving at 8 am we congratulated ourselves on our ability to get out early. This lasted until we hit commuter traffic ad re remembered why we usually eft either 2 hours earlier or later than 8 am. Once on the open road we made good time and gas mileage without a trailer to slow us down. DH was going 70 in an effort to make it to Texas in 2 days to eliminate a 3rd night in a motel in the road.
As we drove into the night DH questioned whether the GPS was taking us the northern route or through El Paso. Since the GPS wasn't up to answering questions, I needed a light to check the map. As I fumbled for my cell phone DH reached up to turn on the overhead light in the truck. There was a soft rumbling as the moonroof cover slid open. "Oops" said DH as he reached up to close it. The entire moon roof slid open and frigid air rushed into the truck.
"Oops" said DH again, fumbling at the overhead controls. I slapped his hands away. "Don't push anything else!" I said, "You don't know what the other buttons do!"
"Ejection seats?" DH suggested and we broke into laughter.
With the wind whistling into the cab as we hurtled down the freeway, I found my cell phone and turned it on to find the owner's manual. 5 minutes later we attempted to close the moonroof. We seemed to find the right button and it finally slid shut but when we tried to close the moonroof cover it would not close.
Finally, after opening the moonroof again and closing we realized that in our button pushing frenzy we had not closed it properly but had opened the moonroof vent preventing the cover from closing. Finally with everything secure we agreed not to push anymore buttons unless we looked them up first in the manual.Now that we had identified the overhead light button, I continued to read the manual to see if thus vehicle was equipped with any other hidden surprises. I found the controls for the massaging sets and we played with these for a while. The seats not only massage your back but also your buttocks. This would keep our behinds from falling asleep on long trips.
Next we tried to find a new country station since we were losing ours. This truck was not equipped with Sirius radio! A major flaw in cross country trips! no Willie's Roadhouse, no Golden Oldies, no Fox news, no Country music at all.
We suffered through until we hit eastern Arizona when the Navajo country station came on The songs were the same and listening to the announcements in Dineh, interspersed with English names and words, was interesting. We remembered how the Navajo were "wind talkers" during WWII. The Japanese thought the Navajo language was a code and couldn't break it. These brave Navajo soldiers died before being captured so they would not be forced to break the "code". I said a prayer for them as we travelled into New Mexico. Thursday we discovered that we made better time than we thought since the clock in the truck was wrong! We pulled into our Sulphur Springs motel at 8pm. The next day we set out for our ranch. Our electrician had said the work was not finished so we hoped to catch him there. Calling him however we found that he was at another location. He could meet with us in the afternoon so we headed to the county seat, Quitman, to take care of our tax papers. In the afternoon we met up with John at the ranch to discuss the electric work he was doing for us on the septic and the other work DH wanted done so we could add electric to the barn and well pump this summer. We also met the tenants of the house and Cody, our cattle tenant. Apparently Larry and Cody had a good laugh over me calling Larry to "warn" him about Cody keeping a bull in the pastures. Larry had retired from full time ranching in Oklahoma where he had a large herd of cattle he raised for the organic market! When Larry told me that I had to laugh too. According to Larry they did nit think they would be out of the house as quickly as they had expected. When they rented it they had just sold their house in Sulphur Springs and were going to build in Yantis. Turns out that there has been a delay in acquiring the property they are purchasing from a cousin since it is tied up in probate. Although they anticipate the house building itself will only take about 6 months (they are putting up a metal building house) they don't know how ling the probate will take. Meanwhile they are living rough surrounded by all their boxes and furniture packed into 2 of the bedrooms. They are good tenants and have done a few small repairs themselves. We assured them there was no rush since we had to bring back sheep equipment corrals, and fence the perimeter for the guardian dogs. We are hoping they will be there for another year so the house isn't left vacant. That way we can get in and do our renovations before we move in the end of 2023, as well as doing the 6-7' perimeter fencing in stages.
Cody said he did not need the barn at all so we can also use it to store our fencing equipment as we bring it back over the next year. We will also be able to get in and repair the old tack room in the barn to get it ready for cabinets and shelving. It needs repairs and possibly a new floor in part. I have been considering putting the jugs in the barn and using the open covered areas on each side of the barn for outside shelter for the ewes and creep lambs. We will decide on that later. Knowing that we can use corral panels to keep the cattle out of the barn to protect our stuff is good news.
Saturday we went to the junior rodeo and commiserated with the parents about the sleet and icy rain on rodeo day after the balmy sunny Friday. On the way back to the motel we did some shopping, and took care of other business we had to do in Sulphur Springs. Then we got ready for dinner with our great niece Kylee who is living in Tyler with her fiancé. We had a nice dinner with them and his parents. She was very excited that relatives would be living only an hour away. Their wedding is next March. On Sunday DH watched the Super Bowl game. He had been afraid he would miss it. On Monday we went to Lindale to meet Baymule and help with the move.
Once we got everything moved to Groveton I unloaded my tools from the truck. Marv kept telling me he would unlock the tonneau cover "later" so I tried to do it myself with no luck. I did find out why they were cursing in California as they tried to deal with the tonneau cover lock. I decided to let the tail gate down and crawled in under the cover. Good plan except the tailgate was too far off the ground.
Stepping on the hitch into the truck bed was not an option since the tonneau cover was still locked! But wait, remember my little folding stool? I go it out and managed to pull myself onto the tailgate. I had to do the army crawl on my elbows and squirm into the recess of the covered truck bed. I pulled out 3 tool boxes and brought them into the house. Going back for the other tool boxes I came up one short. I had the brad nailer, and the box with the drills BUT the box with the batteries and chargers was not there. Apparently DS1 thought that the small pile of boxes outside the shed door were the only ones going and did not load the essential batteries and chargers for them. As it turned out we ended up not having time to do the moldings and with the rain we couldn't paint them before installing them anyway. They will have to get done this summer when we go back to Texas. At least we got the T posts in and gate hung in time for the fence stringing party.
We had a wonderful time with Baymule and really enjoyed meeting her DD and DS. Great senses of humor and fun people. Looking forward to seeing them again in Texas. We didn't get down to Leander to see Erick. It turned out that Kris had been in Palm Springs until the day before we left! We drove to Dallas and met him and his mom, Beverly, for lunch on our way home. We got home Wednesday evening.
However it is not our truck and we won't put the money into it to get it lowered and replace the giant tires and rims with smaller ones. 
It is much easier than trying to look through all my registration papers to ID them.
