A Now It's Funny Tale

You know how sometimes it life you have things happen and say to each other, we'll laugh about this later?  We had one of those concerning the new car we bought.  It has taken me some time to get to the I'm laughing about it part though.  In the meantime I was not laughing at all.  I was in fact convinced it was the Universes way of telling us, "Bad idea" on buying the car. 

We bought this car during the weeks that were extra crazy busy for us so I was already on overload.  We lost some employees at work so work was extra crazy busy for me.  The car was in Clearwater which is at least two hours away.

The drive was pretty hectic for us, especially when we had to go after our work days which meant we were hitting other people's rush hour traffic in Tampa.  I am not a fan of this.  In fact, I've been known to freak out a bit in traffic like this.  But we wanted this car, so I made myself do it.  (I'm not driving here, only the passenger)

Once we got closer to Clearwater, it was a delightful drive.  You cross over water.  The mermaid in me was slightly satisfied to be that close to a real body of water.  It was beautiful.

So we made the trek there.  Took the bad along with the good.  I drove the truck back home, so I could not snap pictures this time except at traffic lights.  Swore a bit while driving but we made it.

Had the car at home.  Enjoyed it for one day.  The second day the top got stuck and wouldn't go back up.  Called the dealer.  Oh yeah, we knew there was a problem with the top but we thought we fixed it.  Bring it back in and we'll fix it right this time.  So we go after work again.  For a two hour drive each way.  Hit rush hour traffic again.   Hit the lovely part near Clearwater again.

So pretty, it was almost worth the second drive over.  NOT!

Left our car.  Brought home a loaner car.  Made it home just fine.  Few days later got a call saying our car was ready to pick up.  I am beat so Nathan offers to go pick it up alone this time.  So he heads over for the THIRD trip in one week's time to Clearwater.  So much for the car saving us lots of gas money. 

I am scrapbooking and get a text message from Nathan that lets me know he just had a flat tire.  With the loaner car.  He hasn't even made it to our car yet.  Before I can even respond with great sympathy he sends me another saying that the spare tire now has a flat.  Wow.  Really??????

Calls the dealer who tells him to drive on the rim until he can get to a tire place.  Shows us at the tire place just in time to get a new tire.  Sends me this picture:

At this point, we are not sure who is crying harder, us or the car dealer.  He got the tire fixed and got the car to the dealer.  Dealer lets him know how much money he has lost on the deal.  We feel bad.  A little.  He then picks up our car and made it home.  At one a.m.  We pray this is the end of this nightmare.

What makes all of this even funnier to us now is that at the very same time we decided to go ahead and fix our golf cart and after replacing the batteries we discovered there was something else wrong with it.  So we were also transporting the golf cart back and forth to the repair guy.  We had to borrow a trailer in order to transport the golf cart.  Oh yeah, big time fun there too. 

To add even more irony to this fun fest, I had just been telling someone how I was considering getting rid of the golf cart because it was just one more thing to take care of, be responsible for and have to spend money on.  That I felt our lives becoming less simple because of adding more things to it.  Cue Twilight Zone music.

I'm happy to report both mechanical devices are working beautifully and we have been enjoying them very much.  And I really am laughing about it now.

Mostly, that is.

Just a plug for the car dealership that did right by us: Regal Cars of Florida Inc.  They seriously rocked and made the nightmare as smooth as it possibly could have been.  We highly recommend them!

I really, really hope this is The End.

Who Needs A Horse?

We see a lot of ummmm..."unusual" things where we are right now.  The other day we went to Dollar General and there were not one but two horse trailers in the parking lot, complete with horses.  I can't imagine one scenario where I'd be driving a trailer full of horses and absolutely need to take a detour to Dollar General, but what do I know.  I've never driven a trailer full of horses after all. 

I see what I assume is a local person that drives their motorized wheelchair around.  Which isn't that odd by itself but the way this one is decorated in all different types of decorations does make it stand out.  One day it had pinwheels that had LCD light in the center.  And by pinwheels, I mean maybe 15 to 20.  It was like watching a one man parade and gave me a big smile when I passed by.

We see really big trucks with really big wheels on a regular basis.  And by really big truck, I mean bigger than our beast.  I wonder how on earth the people get inside of these trucks.  Do they have to climb up on the wheels first?  Is there some sort of pulley system that gets them inside?  I don't know the answers to these questions, but it is beginning to seem normal to me to encounter these things.  At this point, none of this really fazes me.  

But sometimes I see things that still have me doing a double take.  This cool car was the case today.  I took my cell phone and grabbed a few shots.  Then Austin proceeded to tell me that it was the Cowboy's car.  Ok...I'll bite.  What does that mean?  He tells me the guy who drives it looks and walks like a cowboy.  I guess you don't need a horse to be a cowboy if you have a car like this that does the job instead.

Ah, I love life's random things.  Makes it so much more interesting than the common normal things that we see so often that we don't even really see them.  Pausing to really look is a good thing.  In this case it was at least.

Living the life in still so warm Florida!

Project 365~Feb 16

Best.Personalized.Plates.Ever.

Haines Shoe House

As we were driving to the Harley Davidson factory, I saw a house shaped like a shoe.  I hadn't heard anything about it so I had to look online when we got back home.

This is what I found: The Shoe House, built in 1948, was by far "Colonel" Mahlon N. Haines' most outlandish advertising gimmick. It is a wood frame structure covered with wire lath and coated with a cement stucco. It measures 48 ft. in length, 17 ft. in width at the widest part and 25 ft. in height. The interior consists of five different levels and contains three bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen and living room.

This giant structural advertisement was originally used as a guest house. In the first year after its completion, elderly couples were invited to stay for a weekend and live like "kings and queens" at Haines' expense.

So Random Things We Found Today

While we were out looking at covered bridges, we came across a few things that make you go hmmmmm.

The first was not that unusual of a thing, except for where it was located.  We saw a pair of abandoned shoes on one of the bridges.  I wondered as a mom, what happened here?  Did they get home and wonder where they left their shoes long after they forgot where they left them?  Did they hate the shoes and want them to be lost?  Or did they want to leave them there as a symbol of something?

This wasn't a random thing, but we also saw this beautiful creature here:

After we left this bridge, we saw something else that caught our eye.  This was the funniest thing we've seen in quite awhile.  We had some interesting conversations about who could own this fine piece of machinery.  Someone full of life I bet.

Yes, that is Super Scott's car.  Isn't that the coolest car?  I can see Austin wanting something like this for his first car! 

You just never know what you'll see when you drive around looking for local sights. 

Living the life in Ohio!

Unique RV in Tennessee

As we headed to the National Park today, we stopped at the Visitor Center to grab maps.  This truck/RV pulled in next to us.  I've seen a lot of different RV's over the years, but this one was the first of its kind.

I just had to jump out and snap some pictures and talk to the creator of this interesting space.

Lucky for me, the guys was more than happy to show and tell.  This made my day.  I love stuff like this!

Gloucester from My Window

Yesterday we went to visit the library here again.  I love the library here.  Seriously, it is probably the nicest library we have visited since going on the road.  Since Nathan came along with us, I was able to snap pictures from my window.  There are some gorgeous brick buildings here.  It is really a pretty town to visit.

And in the random, things that make me go hmmmmm category:  First, there are these things in some of the yards.  I think they are beehives.  I want to find out for sure.  This one is in front of the school here.

The second one is a sign outside of a church.  I don't understand what exactly this sign means.  Does it mean those that are depressed aren't blessed?  If that is the case, wouldn't that just be even more depressing to the ones that are already depressed?  I'm telling you, this sign had me still pondering things while in the shower the next morning.

I'd go in and ask them what it really means except clearly I am PMSing and my temporary insanity would disqualify me as an intelligent person with whom to hold a conversation.  And I'm afraid if I did, next week I'll drive by and it will say "TOO DEVOTED TO BE BLOATED".  I don't even want to see the angry mob of chocolate cake eating women that would show up to protest that sign.  Well, I kind of do want to see that angry mob, because I'll be right in the middle of it!

If by now it appears that I have far too much time on my hands...I don't.  I'm just procrastinating doing the work that is stressing me out because I don't have it done yet.  Just because I yelled at my family this morning due to that stress, embarrassed myself as our dear friends knocked on the door while I was yelling (and I ran and hid in the bathroom like any self-respecting crazed female does) and we are supposed to be heading out the door in ten minutes and I shouldn't leave until I get my work done...that doesn't mean I should stop blogging and do.the.work.  Refer back to the first sentence under the last picture.  Enough said.

Summerton from my Window

Normally, the first day we are at a new place, we drive around a bit to see what is there.  Since we were here so late and it was dark, we had to wait until yesterday to do our meet and greet with Summerton.  This time I grabbed my camera so I could shoot some pictures from the truck window while we drove around.

I've noticed some common themes about small towns.  And I'm pretty sure since living on the road, my children will never be able to have the same idyllic view of our country that they would have been allowed otherwise.  Actually, none of us will.  Because as much as I say these things I'll share are common, there is also an element of "can't be captured and labeled" in each place we'll visit.  Like the Disco Club we saw in the middle of nowhere yesterday.  Disco???  Really????  Those parts would take a lifetime and far too much bandwidth for me to capture by myself, so I'll stick to what is easier to put pictures and words around for today.

Here are the common themes that I have noticed.  There are always some parts that are lovely:

Some not so lovely:

Some parts where time stood still:

Some parts where time marches forward. (I did not snap any of these places today).  There is always some evidence of religion:

Patriotism:

and Education:

All of these are interesting.  I enjoy them as we see them.  Nothing compares to my favorite category of all though.  It is the What the ?????? category.  It's the things that have me wanting to stop the truck, climb out and ask the story behind it.  For example:

There has to be a story behind this sign, which was placed in someone's yard.  Where there were no apparent businesses around.  I'm still trying to figure out the secret message.  Which is most definitely proof that the message was not to me.

This really has me thinking though.  If I still lived in a house, I'd want one of these in my front yard too.  I could leave messages for Nathan and the kids.  Like "Did you remember the milk?"  Because if they didn't remember the milk, they could turn around right then and there and go back to the store and get it.  Rather than go through our typical process that happens if they make it inside without milk, which is far less pleasant for both of us.

Or I could put my current mood on there, like one would the temperature.  That could be really useful to my family.  I could even send messages to my neighbors that way.  Like "Listening to you practice drums is not nearly as fun as you think" or "If I wanted a fertilized lawn, I'd get my own dog" or "Yes, those were my PJ's" or "It was probably my child".   We could keep score of the current Scrabble leader on there (usually me).  Or Monopoly (usually Nathan).  Or Guitar Hero (usually the boys-ok ALWAYS the boys). 

This could provide hours of endless fun for me.  So I'm confused why the owners of this fine equipment are using it in such a boring way.  If you decide to put it in your yard, shouldn't you then use it to its fullest advantage?  I might have to drive back down there today to find out what is going on there.

Oh and if you are scared after reading all of this.....if Diana were with me, we'd probably already be down there asking.  And no, I'm not joking.  At all.

Living the life in South Carolina.