Not a day goes by lately that I wish I hadn’t turned on the news or looked at my social media feeds. It’s all bad. Coronovirus, politics, racial inequality, and then people arguing over all of it – it just doesn’t end. Everything and everyone is so polarized that you feel like you are forced to pick a side. It’s uncomfortable and makes you wonder if anyone really cares about humanity anymore? Is anyone just nice for the sake of being nice?
A few weeks ago Dave decided he wanted to look for an old camper to sit by the pond. Something to hang out in, maybe use as a changing room and store a mini-fridge for cold drinks. I wasn’t completely on board, but then I’m usually not. We just don’t need another project or more old junk sitting around.
Soon after this conversation, he found a 1966 Dodge Travco on Facebook Marketplace in Sebewaing, Michigan (over on the other side of Lake Huron slightly up into the thumb). He took one trip over during the week to check it out and after returning from his field trip, informed me the purchase was a “go”. Lucky me.
Since the Travco didn’t run, he proceeded to tell me he was going to need to line up transportation or rent some kind of big trailer to haul it on. In addition, this might require two trips; one to haul his tractor over so he had a way to push the Travco up onto the trailer and bring it home, then a second trip to go back and pick up the tractor. Good grief! Could this be any more inefficient? I decided I’d just sit back and let this all work itself out. Maybe the plan would fall apart.
A few days later Dave informs me that he was borrowing a semi-truck and low boy trailer from his good friend Tom at Zoom Farm Equipment to haul the Travco home.
“That’s a great idea,” I replied, still wondering about the tractor hauling as part of the logistical equation.
“Oh, and I found a guy with a tractor who said he’d push it on,” Dave added with a little half smile on his face.
“What? Seriously? I thought the owner lived in town and didn’t have any equipment?” I said dismayed.
“Well, I decided to get online and Googled the Yellow Pages for farmers in the area. I just kept calling but most of the numbers didn’t even work.” He went on to say that a woman finally answered the number at a local hog farm about 20 minutes outside of Sebewaing. Dave didn’t even think anyone would listen to him and would just hang up thinking it was a telemarketer or something. She (Connie) heard him out and then said, “Oh, I’m sure my husband could help you out with that. Just call back around lunch time and he’ll be in the house.”
Dave did eventually connect with Warren, who then delegated the task to his son Mark and gave Dave his phone number.
“We’ll plan on you early Saturday morning then. Just call Mark when you’re 30 minutes out so he has time to drive to town.” Amazing. I told Dave I would ride along – mainly because I was so curious how this was all going to turn out.
Saturday morning (7/11/2020) Dave woke me up at 4 a.m. (yes, 4 a.m.) and told me not to drink too much coffee because we had the big rig and it’s too hard to stop for bathroom breaks. He then informed me of all three rest stops along the route and told me to plan accordingly. He had us leaving so early because it was a three-hour trip, plus he had built in one bathroom pit stop. 😊
We made good time in the big truck and I never needed a bathroom break once HA! I kept fiddling with the radio trying to find a station while he tried to miss potholes. As Michiganders we all know how bad our roads are, but until you sit in the passenger side of a big truck and drive I-69, you really have no idea. The driver’s side has a better seat with shock absorbers that ride the bumps out better, but no such luck in the jump seat.
Every time we hit a really bad stretch of road we yelled, “Fix the damn roads, Gretchen!”
Ahead of schedule, we stopped at a McDonald’s about 30 miles from town. But of course, it wasn’t even open yet due to new limited COVID hours. We got a snack at the gas station across the street instead and called Mark to let him know we were almost there.
As Dave talked to him, the conversation started to get a little awkward…
“Oh, well I talked to your dad yesterday. He didn’t tell you?”
“It shouldn’t take too long. I’ve got a low boy and chains and everything we need to get it on.”
“OK, uh huh. Let me know.”
After hanging up, Dave tells me that Mark needs to call his dad and sort this out. Oh shit. All this way and no tractor?
A few minutes later the phone rings…
“Great! See you in 20 minutes!”
Whew. Crisis averted.
We pulled into the quaint little town of Sebewaing in short order and parked out in front of Jim’s house. He met us in the driveway and seemed pretty excited to get the motor home moved out. I was thinking his wife was probably at least twice if not ten times more excited.
The Travco was not what I expected. It was even worse. All flat tires, broken door, and the inside. Wow. Completely destroyed by a raccoon and still full of the mess and smell. First impression was run, run away from this as fast as possible.
While Dave and Jim were chatting a bit about how to make the move, Mark pulled up on a John Deere tractor and within minutes his dad came in a pickup truck with the tractor forks in back.
“Mornin’! Nice to meet you folks,” said Warren. “I see you’ve met Mark. Sorry about that miscommunication.”
From there on out it was all business. Instinctively this group of farm guys all knew just what to do. Dave had it all worked out in his head and started hooking on chains. Mark got the tractor into position. Warren was the supervisor and Jim grabbed a broomstick to move overhead wires out of the way.
Once things got moving, Jim’s wife, Kelly, came outside and started to video record on her phone. I walked over to introduce myself. “So, I bet you’re pretty happy to get this out of your driveway?!”
“YES!” she exclaimed. “We’ve held onto this project for too long. We really need to get some work done on our house.” I know the feeling sister…and gave her a little air fist pump.
The loading went perfectly and on the first try. Oh God, does that mean it was meant to be?
Once we were loaded and ready to go, Dave paid Jim the agreed price and then tried to pay Warren and Mark for their help.
“I don’t want your money. Just give it to a charity, ” said Warren.
“Well, that’s fine but how about a charity up here?” asked Dave. “Something you guys care about?”
Jim then mentioned that he was planning to give the money for the motor home to the local town fundraiser that was going on and Warren replied that he would like that too. With that decided we gave all the money to Jim to handle and thanked everyone.
Wait – we just bought something and the proceeds went to charity? Really nice people just helped us for no good reason except to be…helpful? This was amazing! My faith in humanity was restored.
The guys then chatted for a bit and wished us well on the drive home. As we pulled out I took another good look at that lovely town; the river running through it, the 4th of July buntings and lights on Main Street, the sugar factory on the outskirts. True Americana.
I stopped recording just as the back right wheel went off the trailer. Yikes.
Dave and I talked about our adventure all the way home while we simultaneously figured out how to get the Travco unloaded and where it was going to get parked. At this point the ‘project’ had grown on me and whether it ever got restored or not, it was one more road trip and a lot of good memories in the books. That trip, those people, and $500 dollars worth of lawn art.
Stay happy and healthy out there and stop by the pond soon.
Mel
XOXO
Kauffman Family Farm 