Truckzilla is here!!!

Last Saturday was another big day for the Finney-Timm household. After an uneventful flight from Sioux Falls and an overnight stay in Dallas, we rented a car and made our way 190 miles northwest to the Texas metropolis of Vernon to pick up our new ride.

Sprocket after completing his post-purchase inspection

Why haul our cookies all the way to the middle-of-nowhere Texas to buy a pickup? Turns out the kind of vehicles capable of hauling our 5th wheel aren't easy to come by. They're wide, heavy and pricey (both to own and to operate). As a result, few dealers carry them, and those who do don't maintain a large stock. After considerable research, Leonard discovered the Ford dealer in Vernon whose management apparently has set its sites on making their dealership tops in the pickup world. (I wouldn't be surprised to find that the number of dual-rear wheeled pickups on the Vernon Ford lot exceeds the population of the local elementary school.)

Not to be outdone by Leonard's research, I, too, have kept busy learning about the RV world. The result? I've discovered that a common practice seems to be naming one's rig. Descriptive monikers like "Big White Beluga" and "The Beast" appear in various RV blogs and message posts. Maybe it's part of the national obsession with vehicles. Maybe it's the result of inhaling too many campfire ashes. Perhaps scientists someday will unravel this mystery. In any case, we're going to take a stab at it and introduce to you the latest tool in our RV arsenal, TRUCKZILLA, a Ford F350 that's four tons and 400 horse power of diesel drinkin' fun!!!

Does this console make my butt look big?

Okay, honestly, I'm not all that excited about buying a truck - more of a Prius girl myself - but when it comes to being able to pull 16,000 pounds of trailer safely through the steep grades of the Rocky Mountains, it turns out that more definitely is better. YouTube is rife with videos of poor slobs who tried to make do with less truck than the situation required and ended up burning out their brakes and engines as they frantically struggled to keep a two-ton vehicle from being dragged backward down a mountain road by a nine-ton trailer. While it might make for interesting cinema, it does not make for fun travel.


Dog hair on the seats? Not on my watch!

So, we're back in Dallas - Leonard, Sprocket, Truckzilla and I - awaiting word on the delivery date for our 5th-wheel.

At least we have Truckzilla to occupy us as we learn the ins-and-outs of its operation. The owner's manual sits on the hotel nightstand as I write this. No doubt it will come in handy in the event of an attack of insomnia.