Our Grand Adventure

My Farmer and I went on a grand adventure last month. We ventured out of state! Woohoo!! And more than 20 miles over the state line! We took a trip to Polson, Montana. Now most people are like, “that’s awesome! Did you go see this or go see that?” I’m like, “Nope, didn’t know about this or that.” I should have research the area a bit before we left, but I didn’t. Most people do that before they take a vacation. This trip can not really be considered a “true” vacation because it was of course, farm related. However, I didn’t have to fix a meal or do the dishes for 3 days so I consider that a vacation for me. Since we did traveled to a whole different state and was gone for 2 full nights, it has to be considered some kind of a vacation. And since we were actually gone more then our typical get-a-way of 30 hours or less, it can’t be what I consider one of our mini-vaca’s. Vacations are supposed to be relaxing, one other reason I can’t consider this trip a real vacation. This trip had a lot of stress with very little relaxation. Especially for my Farmer. As I think about it, I believe I’ll call this trip a “work-cation”. Yep, that works.

The reason for our trip was to pick up a newly purchased piece of equipment. We looked into having the machine hauled here by a trucking outfit, but the price quoted was $4,700 with the words “more charges could occur” in the fine print. Which in my book means lots more $$$. My Farmer looked over the pictures of the machine on line and said “I wouldn’t be afraid to drive it home. After all, those machines are built to be driven on the road”. 333 miles of road?!?!?!!! This is where the stress factor hit for me. Knowing the machine that we were replacing with this new used one, made me cringe.

Since we purchased the machine via an online auction, we really felt we needed to take possession ASAP. We were at a lull in our haying season, so it was now or not for another month. So that was it….it was decided. We were headed to Montana to get our “new-to-us because we were the highest bidder” stacker wagon.

I packed a change of clothes for 1 overnight stay. (not sure what I was thinking there!) My Farmer packed everything he thought he could possibly need to get the machine home…..tools, oil filters, oil, fuel filters, jack, hydraulic fluid, straps, chains. He wanted to take an air compressor also, but it was too big for my pickup to power. (isn’t it awesome that pickups nowadays have a plug in!) I threw in a lawn chair. I figured I might as well have a comfy chair to sit in while he serviced the machine. I planned to enjoy our “work-cation” whenever and however I could!

Here we go…

On the first day of travel, we arrived in Missoula in time for dinner (quick drive thru as we were still to nervous to relax much), drove around enough to check out the “through route” we would be taking when we headed back through with the stacker, and then found a hotel for the night. I had not made reservations prior to arriving because I really didn’t know where we would spend the night. I picked out a hotel as we drove through town, thinking it would be a clean and decently priced place. It was clean but I was wrong about the decently priced. It should have had nice thick, fuzzy bathrobes for the price we paid. The room did have fancy folded towels and a heated toilet seat with 3 settings. I guess that was the reason for the high price.

The next morning we headed out and arrived at our destination around 8am. The farm where the machine was was in a beautiful setting. Nestled directly beneath the beautiful high rising mountains and within sight of Flathead Lake. I did have to use a bit of imagination, as there was so much smoke from the surrounding forest fires I could hardly make out the mountains and the lake a half a mile away!

Finally seeing the machine with our own eyes, we concluded that we did make a good purchase. After about 4 hours, 3 trips to the town’s parts store, and lunch from the local drive through (that I thoroughly enjoyed in the comfort of my lawn chair), my Farmer had the new-to-us stacker wagon ready to hit the road. We confidently (kind of) pulled out onto the roadway and headed out. My Farmer in the stacker and me in the now official “support” vehicle…hauling all the extra parts and tools if a breakdown should occur. And as always, I was also the encouragement part of the team, You CAN do this!, Drive it like you STOLE it!(relayed advice from his sister) It’ll all be FINE! Drive like your DAD would! That last one was the one he needed to hear. I was also the praying-mobile. Saying my Hail Mary’s and visiting with Jesus the WHOLE way!!

At this point, I’m sure you are all wondering how fast this new-to-us stacker wagon travels. This was one of our questions when we decided, well, when my Farmer decided, to drive it home. The stacker wagon we were replacing with this one has a top speed of 25 (I think). We were hoping for at least 50mph with this new-to-us one. After all, it is a newer version. As we pulled out of Polson, I clocked my Farmer’s speed. Top speed….32mph. Oh man! This could take a while. I should have packed more clothes!!! And snacks!!

Heading back home

We cruised down the road, made it though Missoula with no problems, and got a room for the night in Lolo. With one huge worry section of our trip behind us, we treated ourselves to a nice dinner. My Farmer even treated himself to a beer, saying he deserved. I agreed.

We were on the road bright and early the next morning. Well, my Farmer was. I hung back a bit. My plan was to take in all the spots of interest on the journey back home. You know, enjoy a bit of my “work-cation”. I didn’t want to be to far back though, in case my Farmer needed his “service” vehicle. My first stop was Lolo Hot Springs. I had always wanted to stop there. Now I can say I have. A full 5 minutes. I was to nervous to hang out too long. I didn’t want my Farmer having troubles and wondering where I was. But hey, it was more than just a drive by like all the other trips I’ve taken with my Farmer over Lolo in his semi-truck when he was hauling seed potatoes.

I caught up with my Farmer in his “speed” wagon at the top of Lolo pass. He was chugging along doing just fine, so I pulled into the rest area as he continued on. This stretch of road was the next worry section. He told me the stacker had good brakes. So I tried not to worry. He was worried about holding up trucks on the grade but we were early enough, there was very little traffic. After reading a chapter or 2 from my book, that is one thing you do on a vacation, I pulled back onto the road. I did not catch up with my Farmer until he was down at the bottom along the river. I was actually starting to worry. Did I miss him somewhere? Did he run off the mountain? This worry caused me to not stop at any more roadside spots of interest. Once I caught up with him, he seemed to be traveling at a pretty good speed so I pulled up behind him to clock him. Woohoo!! He had that machine up to 43mph!!! We may make it home today after all!!

We stopped for a bite to eat at a wonderful little café at the next town, then we were back on the road. The plan from here was for me to stop at the next town, get some sandwiches, then we would meet up somewhere down on the Salmon River for a picnic lunch. I caught up with my Farmer as he was climbing the next grade. It was a bit sooner than I thought. Dang, I should have stopped and shopped at the dollar store after I picked up the sandwiches! He pulled over at the top of the hill, so I pulled in behind him. Come to find out, he was having fuel problems. The fuel filter was plugged. (Good thing I didn’t stay and shop!) Because he is very wise on these issues, and thought way ahead to cover any possible problem that he could think of that might arise, there was an extra filter in my “service” vehicle. I pulled out the extra fuel filter, my Farmer replaced it, and he was on his way. Way for me to be there and support, right!! I drove back to town to get another one just incase.

This next stretch of road was the next huge stress factor for us. My Farmer was confident about his driving and the handling of the stacker wagon. His worry was holding up traffic. However, just as he was pulling out to head down the hill, a slower moving vehicle came up behind him, which held the traffic up for him. I felt this was a God send. I love it when things work in our favor.

Home and happy

My Farmer did not stop down on the river for a sandwich as planned. With the other slow moving vehicle holding up the traffic, my Farmer took full advantage of it and just kept on a-truckin’ in his “speedy” stacker wagon. He was ready to be done with this trip and get home. Which we did. We got home and had our “picnic lunch” sandwiches for dinner in the comfort of our living room. Relaxed, stress gone, and breathing again.

That evening I googled things to see along this stretch of road that we had just ventured on during our “work-cation”. Wow, what a great vacation destination. I should have googled this before we left. Yet we were both a bit to nervous to really take extra time to enjoy any sight seeing. (Unless it was directly in our viewing sight as we were driving down the highway.) As I was telling my Farmer of all the places we could have gone and seen, he says, “Well ya know Shirl, we can always go back there on a “real” vacation. I just smiled and said, “yep, we could”. In my mind, I was saying, “sure we can….if it’s farm related“, smiling of course. ‘Cuz that’s how it is when you are Livin’ the Life, the Farm Life that is.