Monday, September 27, 2010 - Hay Day, and Change of Plans

Having spent some time over the weekend looking for hay and for potential trucks to buy on craiglist, today we ran down to Perris Lake to pickup a load of hay (for $9/bale for grass hay with a bit of alfalfa mixed in), sweated to death getting it, but fortunately there were two guys helping us load, so it wasn't too bad. We let them load it their own way (we usually do it, or supervise others doing), and as a result we ended up getting a few less bales than usual, but that was fine, we felt the hay was a bit stalky, though nice and green so I'm sure the horses will love it. Afterward, we took a drive to a used car dealer who had an ad for a truck on craigslist, and test drove a Dodge Ram (that was pretty nice, except it had no power windows, locks or seats, the most basic package), and a Ford 350, which had just as rough a ride as I feared it might, from past experience. They had one Chevy 3500HD, but it was too new and over budget, so I didn't even bother to test drive it. Have spent several hours there, we left in the heat of the day and headed back to the ranch. I got back onto craigslist to see what else was available in Las Vegas, which was supposed to be our next stop. Things had changed with our client, however, and wasn't going to be able to meet us there any more, but we still were planning on heading out that way. Out of curiosity, though, I decided to check out what there was in Phoenix, since we could just as easily go to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon as the north rim. The list of possibilities suddenly expanded exponentially. There were several Chevys and lots of Dodges listed compared to Las Vegas, so we made a few phone calls, and decided that Phoenix was a better idea. Hubby particularly liked it because we wouldn't need to do much climbing, as we would have done going to Vegas. With 100+ temps, and heading across the desert, we didn't need to stress out the van any more than necessary. Hopefully, it will be the last time!