We found “The Truck”:
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| Let me just highlight the center right photo of "the 4". Kids personalities so well displayed; Savannah- sweet, caring and affectionate, also a big protector of all the others, Levi a little ham hopeful to see himself in the photo in a moment, Charlotte our little feisty one- she is squeezing them all together, and lastly Cheyenne- who is always so easy going and along for the ride, however confusing it may be to her little mind! LOVE these peeps. No neighbors walking by to talk our full family pic so.. it is what it is! |
Its been an eventful week. Cheyenne turned 4 months. I turned 33. We gave our landlord our 30 day notice (since we are storing everything while we are traveling). We started packing up our apartment and… we bought the Silver Bullet. That is what the girls and I named it- why- I really don’t know but it immediately stuck. They also educated me that the truck is a boy since it has blue spring shocks! Blue=boy.
We have been in the
process of the following:
1. Selling Joshs car (it only fits 5 people anyway-
and there are 6 of us now)
2. Buying a "pull" vehicle that can seat
more than 6. We were deciding between:
a. V10 Gas Excursion
b. 7.3L Diesel Excursion
c. Diesel 7.3L Ford E350 Van
3. Deciding on a pull behind trailer- our top
choices
a. Toy Hauler FSAK26 Attitude
b. Cougar quad bunk with super slide
The Silver Bullet Story-
Let me just lay the $
thing out there- I am not uncomfortable at all talking about $, for some reason
our culture is. We don’t have a lot, but we have more than some and
it’s all relative to the income in certain areas and the cost of living. For
example- our rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in downtown San Clemente is
$1550/mo. Now some of you are from around here and are thinking
“what? that is an excellent price, most 2 bedrooms in downtown area, especially
with a deck and ocean view like yours are minimally $1800/mo- you have a great
deal and should never move.” I agree- we do, we have lived in this
apartment for 11 years now and have been lucky enough not to have our rent
raised much in that time HOWEVER we have 4 kids now so 2 bedrooms isn’t quite
cutting it. Others of you are from other places in the country and
your are thinking “What? $1550 for a 2 bedroom apartment? No
yard at all. You could own something here with land and a mother in
law quarters in the back for less than that in a total mortgage”. I
would again agree. The financial stuff is a sensitive subject
because it is relative to cost of living and income. I know there
are some of you that are uncomfortable with laying out your financial situation
BUT this post is meant to be more of a diary of our adventures and life with
our kids at this age and when I look back one day I want to see the numbers-
and have a record of the details, for myself. So if this bugs you- just
skip this part:
Josh got laid off in
June. When you work in the accounting field it’s not a far stretch
to see when and who will get laid off so we were completely expecting this- and
were ready. Especially me. I thought it would happen back
in March which was concerning since we had their health care coverage and
Cheyenne was due in April- but after she was here I was just counting the days
until we would get the news. I knew it would kick us into high gear
towards our trip. When he came home and told me I was THRILLED- crazy
right? It was just perfect timing though! We have been
planning this trip for a while, but just in our Toyota Sienna minivan over a 10
day period staying in hotels. Once Josh got laid off he started
looking for jobs in other states we realized we didn’t really have an official
destination and we revamped our plans to include looking for a new job and a
place to live at the same time. All that to be said- I am the only
one working. I don’t mind working, but for years my income has
mainly been our recreational budget and it suddenly became our
livelihood. Thankfully I work remotely so am bringing all my work on
the road but because of this we are being extra cautious with what we have on
hand and our budget for the large investment purchases of a tow vehicle and
trailer.
In early August we
started our vehicle hunt. Gotta get a tow-er before we can get
something to tow right? We were hunting for E350s Suburbans and
Excursions. One of the first vehicles we found was a 2003 v10
Excursion on craigslist. We actually both found it separately and emailed the owner independently. We were
pretty excited about it since it sounded very well maintained, had new tires
(huge additional cost to consider) and a lot of other great features for
towing. After a short confab we realized we had both reached out to
the guy with similar questions: how many miles, maintenance records etc. The
guy was asking $8700. Ug- we thought. The plan was to
sell Joshs car for $4500, we had in cash $1500- so the max budget we had at the
time was $6000. We knew this was a low offer for it but decided to
throw it out there. The truck was in the Victorville area. He
was thankful for our honesty and agreed to accept $6500 if we could swing that-
even able to accept payments on the last $500- swell guy. We agree
but- Joshs car just sat and sat and didn’t sell so we had to cancel the
deal.
After this we kept
looking- for something even cheaper or looking into financing options. It
was near impossible to find anything not too busted up.
We looked at a 1994 GMC
Suburban with a new 454 engine which could tow about 12,000#- the guy was
selling it for $2000 bucks. We thought this would be a great deal-
but man the inside would have needed some serious TLC, not to mention the
window seals were falling off etc. I was willing to go for it cause
this isn’t a beauty contest but Josh said it drove hard, the AC didn’t work and
it would have needed new tires. Additionally the hitch was rusted so
we just didn’t feel that was safe.
We considered a few 2002
E350 Ford passenger vans- hoping for a diesel and found one listed at $5500-
but come to find out the guy was a crook and had the odometer tampered
with. Ug again
We thought we could
“stretch” ourselves and figured it was worth a test drive for a super low
priced Diesel 7.3L Excursion 2001. The guy was in northern
California about 8 hours away but was going to be in Dana Point soon so we
waited and hoped. When we pulled into the parking lot I was thinking
“this is it”. He wanted $8700. It had 230K miles on it-
but it was a diesel. The guy was super nice but wasn’t really
willing to budge on the number. We knew that going into it- that
truck is worth much more! A few things right away that concerned
us. The trunk door didn’t lock. He said it was quoted as
a $400 fix. Ug. Now we are at $9100. Then Josh
saw that the transmission was leaking a bit- it was probably a transmission
cooler leak but we couldn’t know for sure. Could be a $100 fix OR a
$5000 fix. Ug again. Lastly I went to move the seats to
see how the functionality would be getting the kids in and out and, everything
was rusted in place. So we left, discussed it and just felt that the
total price of it all was just too high for our comfort zone.
By the end of the month
we had the money we needed to buy that first v10- but was is still
available? Would he still give us that same deal? Unlikely right?
But we asked and lo-and-behold….. the Silver Bullet is with us
today! It, ironically, had the same locking problem that the diesel
excursion had and they were quoted $500 to fix. Something told me,
and I don’t know why I didn’t think of this (Gods provision) that we could fix
it ourselves and so we went for it. We test drove, checked it out
and bought it on Sunday Aug 30th- Just in time to feel
like we made a BIG first step before giving our 30 day notice Sept 1st. $6500 cash and we got this puppy!
2003 Silver Ford
Excursion RWD v10, automatic, new yokahama tires, suspension lift, new shocks,
new tierods, new ball joints, rear axel towing air bags, trailer brake
controller, heavy duty tow package, headers, large exhaust, and a banks
powerpack cold air intack and not ONE leak! That is pretty
amazing
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