Another road trip, another vehicle

[79CamaroDiva]

Somehow, Steve convinced me to go on yet another road trip to pick up another vehicle.. last time it was texas for a 55 Belvedere, this time he decided it'd be a great idea to get a truck from Vermont before it snowed really big down here.. I'm not sure if you guys knew it, but apparently winter gets there first.

We got to the road where the address is in the early afternoon, drive up and down it a few times and cant find the place, there's no cell service so we had to drive a few miles before we found the first business to ask to use their phone. Get the directions, turns out that we had turned around in the driveway of the place, but didnt realize it was where we had to be becuase we couldn't see the truck, which was supposed to be 'right behind the house.' Right behind the house turned out to be in a field off a non-plowed road next to the house, back off the main road about 1/4 mile, down a hill, in a foot or more of snow.

The hippie farmers that owned the place said that it wasn't a bad walk to where the truck was, and we should walk down there and see if we can drive it out. We knew this probably wasn't in our best interest, so we tried to drive the jeep down there.. some nice guy in a lifted dodge pulled me out, so we walked. maybe it wasn't for people who looked like they smoked their a pound of weed a day but for us it wasnt exactly pleasant. We got to the truck, and surprisingly, it was in better shape than we could have hoped, but unfortunately, wouldn't start.

We walked BACK up the hill, and the hippie farmer decided he would help us and bring the tractor down to pull it out.. and on his way down there, he plows a road with the bucket. how effing convenient! he tried to jump it for an hour, it started getting dark and snowing probably 2 inches an hour. I'm not sure if i've ever been that cold in my life. At this point, we're not leaving without the truck, so we drive an hour back to the nearest 'town' and find a place to stay.

Get back in the morning with a bunch of diesel stuff to get it running, and the hippie guy was nice enough to have gotten it started for us so we think we're in the clear and can go, get the snow tires we brought mounted on wheels with us put on and get the hell outta there. wrong again. ended up needing shank style lug nuts with the new wheels, goign to 2 different shops that closed before we could get back to them with the lugs, and finally finding a place that would do it for us, turns out the napa had given us the wrong damn size. So he drove it home on questionable tires in the snow..it took us about 12 hours to get home, finally got home around 4am yesterday.

Oh yeah, and it turns out, we were roughly 10 miles from canada.. I was told it was gonna be central vermont. It was like the tundra up there.

Between the two of us, we now have far too many vehicles..

Anyhow, here's some pictures..

Ferry ride to Vermont:
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j274/79CamaroDiva/Road%20Trip%20Part%20II/IMG_7990.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j274/79CamaroDiva/Road%20Trip%20Part%20II/IMG_7992.jpg
Who the hell decided it should be this cold here??
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j274/79CamaroDiva/Road%20Trip%20Part%20II/IMG_7991.jpg
After we got the truck pulled out
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j274/79CamaroDiva/Road%20Trip%20Part%20II/IMG_7996.jpg
Picture from the hippie farmers back yard, the truck was by that cluster of trees
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j274/79CamaroDiva/Road%20Trip%20Part%20II/IMG_7997.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j274/79CamaroDiva/Road%20Trip%20Part%20II/IMG_8000.jpg
The road he was nice enough to plow for us, AFTER we walked down and back.
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j274/79CamaroDiva/Road%20Trip%20Part%20II/IMG_7999.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j274/79CamaroDiva/Road%20Trip%20Part%20II/IMG_8001.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j274/79CamaroDiva/Road%20Trip%20Part%20II/IMG_8002.jpg
A general idea how deep the snow was
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j274/79CamaroDiva/Road%20Trip%20Part%20II/IMG_8004.jpg
A man and his new redneck truck!
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j274/79CamaroDiva/Road%20Trip%20Part%20II/IMG_8007.jpg
Battleship plates!!
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j274/79CamaroDiva/Road%20Trip%20Part%20II/IMG_8008.jpg
Free stuff in the bed of the truck, after we shoveled the mountain out of the bed
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j274/79CamaroDiva/Road%20Trip%20Part%20II/IMG_8009.jpg
At least it was a pretty nice view :)
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j274/79CamaroDiva/Road%20Trip%20Part%20II/IMG_8015.jpg

[Tru2Chevy]

You did say last night that he got a really good deal on it, right?

- Justin

[shane27]

free milk crates ftmfw!!!


seriously milk crates have so many good purposes...kind of like wd40

[Teds89IROC]

what an adventure! looks like a really nice area

good luck with the truck!

[79CamaroDiva]

You did say last night that he got a really good deal on it, right?

- Justin

yes, though after a few unanticipated expenses, it was a little more expensive than originally intended.

free milk crates ftmfw!!!


seriously milk crates have so many good purposes...kind of like wd40

yeah, we used them to stand on yesterday to change fluids and filters in it :D

[DaSkinnyGuy]

Now thats the type of land I like, I want to move there. You could make your own drag strip in ur front yard the yards are so big there.

[bad64chevelle]

Its beautiful area up there, I was up in Barre about a month ago which is probably about 45 mins south of the boarder. Its gotta be one of my favorite places to be. Looks like the adventure was worth it.

[Untamed]

One helluva trip yeah. We're headed up to Burlington on Dec 26th to spend a few days with family. Looking forward to it!

I dunno, after seeing the truck, I have to wonder why you'd drive all that way for it. Doesn't look like anything special to me. :shrug: What am I missing?

[SteveR]

Woohoo! It was fun, but I don't think I was ever so cold and wet and certain of death as we were on Thursday :lol: We were wet from having to lay in the snow, in a blizzard, wrapping a chain around the axle to pull it up the road. My socks froze on my feet, my hair froze to my jacket, and my pants froze stiff. Other than that, it was great :lol: We did have fun at the Ben & Jerry's factory which was like an hour or so south. The area was beautiful too. It's a great place to get away from everything, and there's a few cool towns not too far away, Stowe was about an hour. The only thing that sucked was that there was no cell service. I was also amazed at how much it snows up there. It started when we got there, and was still snowing when we left. It must have snowed two or more feet in those two days.

The truck turned out to be a great deal. We had some trouble starting it on Thursday, but it was running by the time we got back to the farm on Friday afternoon. All we did was throw some diesel in the tank, and some Lucas trans stop leak in and drove it over 400 miles home, the first 150 or so in the snow. Not bad for $500 :D The next step is to throw the new wheels and tires on, which should be tomorrow. It's in a lot better shape than we were expecting, so I'm happy :D

[SteveR]

One helluva trip yeah. We're headed up to Burlington on Dec 26th to spend a few days with family. Looking forward to it!

I dunno, after seeing the truck, I have to wonder why you'd drive all that way for it. Doesn't look like anything special to me. :shrug: What am I missing?

That sounds like a fun trip. We didn't get to make it to Burlington. My cousin went to UVM and loved it there. We were in Craftsbury which is north-east.

I was looking for an older diesel truck for the winter for cheap and running. I found a ton on Craigslist and narrowed it down after emailing the owners. I got it down to five or six based on price, condition, and location. It was four Fords and two Chevys, and working at a Ford dealership right now and getting parts at cost and a discount on labor, I went with the Ford in the best shape for the least price :)