Behold, the Beast! Meet Beebop - Our Trusty F350
We have a “car guy.” His name is Reb Croft from RC Motor Company and we’ve ALWAYS bought our cars form him. If you’re in the Knoxville area and looking for a car/truck/suv, go visit him. You’ll be glad you did. He knows his stuff and he can look for whatever you need.
After much research about hauling 5th wheels, we decided on an F350 dually with a 7.3 powerstroke diesel engine. We told Reb, and he got right to work. He knew exactly what we wanted. Leather seats, relatively low miles with 40/20/40 seats up front and a bench seat in the back. He looked....and looked....and looked. It’s crazy hard to find the specific truck that had all the things we were looking for. We’ve never had to be so specific in our search for a vehicle before.
Finally, we found one and it looked amazing. I got my hopes up, Reb flew all the way to Michigan to check it out and drive it back if he thought it was what we wanted. But then I got the call. No good. Reb saw lots of rust in the bed and several other things that just made him uneasy about the purchase. We told him if he didn’t think it was the right one, then we trusted him. He flew back to Knoxville without the truck. I was pretty upset, but we knew the perfect truck was out there just waiting to be found.
After several more false starts and dashed hopes, I found what looked to be the perfect match on Craigslist. It was a beauty! Man, she was dark grey, long bed, running lights, leather in great shape and to top it off, she had a chip! Oh, that glorious chip. Now, I don’t know much of anything about cars but...I know we get ridiculous gas mileage with this chip. I like it.
I had Reb call the guy to see if his asking price was solid and to feel him out and make sure he wasn’t going to murder us if we came to look at the truck. Jon ended up calling him after Reb did and we set up a time to drive to Memphis to check out the beautiful beast.
The trip
The weekend came for us to drive to Memphis and go check out this beautiful truck. We planned to drive there Saturday, spend the night in a hotel, meet the guy with the truck Sunday morning and hopefully drive it home that day. Well.... let’s talk about that, shall we.
The Thursday before we were supposed to leave, Knoxville was covered in ice and snow. Schools had been out for the entire week and the roads were horrible. We called the guy again to see how the roads were in Memphis and they were fine there. So, we decided that if we could get out of our driveway that Saturday morning that we would go on with the trip.
Saturday morning Jonathan shoveled a path down our driveway so we could get the car out of the garage. We were going to make it to Memphis if we had to ride a bus. We figured, it’s a 6 hour drive to Memphis, we’ll leave around 9 and get there 4:00 or 5:00 due to weather and stops. Well, that 6 hour trip turned in to TEN HOURS! Ten crazy hours and probably 6 of those was in horrible icy conditions. We saw so many trees and power lines down. I wish we would have counted how many semi-trucks and cars were slid off the road or in ditches. Now, I’m from Indiana and even I thought it was horrible. I’ve never seen such thick ice on the trees like we did in the Crossville area. We later found out that Middle Tennessee was in a “state of emergency” and they “strongly encouraged [us] to not be on the roads.” Hmm.
So, we made it to Memphis in time to get the kids something to eat, find the hotel and get everyone in bed. Shew. Then it happened. Women, you’re with me on this... that achey feeling in your back, the burning sensation, the nausea... HOLY CRAP! It hit me like a ton of bricks. I have a horrible UTI. Really?? Reeeallly? In Memphis? There were no 24 hour clinics anywhere and there was no way I could make it till morning. Ugh...
I told Jonathan I had to go to the hospital. It hurt to even stand up. It hurt to lay down. I just couldn't stop crying. I was going to have to drive myself to the ER...in Memphis...by myself at 11:00 at night. I went to the lobby of the hotel in tears, asked the manager to tell me where the closest hospital was and he said, “You can’t drive to the hospital like that, you’ve got to call an ambulance.” Umm, “No, sir. I am not paying that bill.” So I got the directions and off I went. 15 minute drive felt like an hour.
Long story short, waited at least an hour in the waiting room, then they took my sample put me in another room waiting for a nurse for an hour, confirmed what I already told them the problem was, gave me a shot in the butt, and an RX to fill for the morning. I’m not even sure what was in the shot but I could stand up by the time I drove back to the hotel and knew if I just had some pain meds I would be able to at least sleep a little bit. It’s now 3am and I figured I would just get some Advil at the hotel because usually hotels have a small area where you can buy things like Advil and toothbrushes, but not this hotel. I walked in asked if there was any stores open close by that I could get some but he said that there was a walmart but it was about 10 minutes away. I started to walk back out to my car in tears and he said, “Wait! I’ve got some medicine in my car outside.” Holy goodness, that man just made me believe in people again. He was so nice and got me 4 pills! 2 for now and 2 for in the morning.
I slept, and it was good.
Fast forward to morning. Jonathan calls the guy and tells him we had a rough night and he offered to bring the truck to the hotel so Jonathan could look at it and I could stay in the bed and rest while the kids watched cartoons. Saint.
The truck was even better than we imagined and we bought it! And you know how we bought it? CASH, Baby! We have never ever done that before and it felt so good. No car loans, just bought it and it was so awesome. Thanks, Dave Ramsey!
So, that’s the story of how we got our awesome truck that our kids have named Beebop! The trailer is hopefully the next major purchase and you know what the kids have named it? You guessed it.... Rocksteady! Yeah, we don’t love the Ninja Turtles at all.
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About the Author
Ashley Longnecker is the fiercely independent tattooed and dreaded half of Tiny Shiny Home. She's a woodworker, photographer and maker of delicious baked goods. She loathes schedules and makes every day an adventure.
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