**** Chapter Eight - Trailer Time ****

I’d spent the evening munching on pizza, sending emails and contacting breeders. I mapped out my journey to my brother’s house and planned my trip. I also reviewed the research I’d done on trailers and came away a positive feeling about my decision. Measure twice and cut once is the old adage and that was what I was trying to do.

The pizza was surprisingly excellent for a delivery pizza; it’s understood that no matter how good the pizza joint you order from is, unless they are a top-end restaurant, they employ mostly teenagers and young adults. If you’ve ever watched a teenaged boy order pizza you’ll understand what I’m talking about, they believe more is better because – well – that’s how they eat it. That night the young ones must have been out to see the new superhero movie or some such because I got an elegant and crispy pizza-pie with just the right mix of everything. I tipped very well that night.

The next morning was another flurry of activity at the guest house. We had a team meeting at 8am with coffee and breakfast eats for all; a lot was happening in the next few days and we all needed to be on the same page. The first order of business from David’s point of view was to give me a verbal tongue lashing about my investment in the retail auto business the prior day, that was on the schedule of investments for my account and I was supposed to be a silent partner in this business. I took my lecture with grace and promised to avoid such maneuvers in the future.

The next business matter was new hires for the fund, and I took my cue to get back into the role of silent partner, meaning I stayed silent. We were updated on the status of our new clients and prospects, and Traci proposed a few new reports which would keep our meetings to a minimum. Traci also updated on the sub-lease we had just picked up on a furnished office space and the details of the move that would happen this afternoon. That was good news for me as I’d have the guest house back to myself until I left on my journey.

Breakfast meeting over, Sonya and I went out the door; I was off to look at trailers at the specialist shop in San Diego I had decided upon. It took Sonya an annoying amount of time to pull together the things she would need to work in the truck on the drive down to San Diego; I sat in my truck twiddling my thumbs while I waited for her. It was worth the wait because once she got her working space set up in the passenger seat (which I couldn’t have done) we started to get a lot accomplished really quickly; she was amazingly efficient. She gave me full reports on the status of my real estate project, purchase requests and responses from my family to the gifts that were offered. Sonya had full access to my email so she saw whatever came and went; this was business and it was important that she saw everything.

It took the full length of the drive to cover all existing business: she reported to me, I made decisions, we made a few phone calls and then suddenly two hours had passed and we were at the custom trailer facility. This was their main assembly & custom fabrication shop, distribution point and included some display models for their elite models. I wanted an elite model.

After parking, we walked amongst the display models until we found their highest end live-in livestock trailer. It was an impressive thing slightly more than fifty feet long and sitting on three axles. It had stalls for five animals, a tack room, overhead hay storage and a luxurious living area. Most importantly was that you could have it fully customized. Sonya took notes as we toured the living area, and we were quickly met by your predictable salesguy.

We politely listened to his spiel and didn’t really speak up until he attempted to divert me to a much cheaper model which he recommended with the comment “something your old truck can handle”. It was obvious he was trying hard to be polite so I returned his politeness, I thanked him and replied, “I’ve done my research and want one of these here with some major customizations”. He paused and then stammered for a second so I followed up with, “Look, I’m buying today so please do us both a favor and just take me to see your General Manager so I can write the check”. He still looked a little confused and I knew this was going fast for a deal of this sort so I added, “I’ll be sure to mention that once you heard what I wanted that YOU recommended I speak directly to him, I’ll make sure you get your commission.” That seemed to fix everything and off we went.

Instead of being led to a fancy office we were taken to the huge garage workshop where our sales guy talked with a harried looking older man with a clipboard who then walked over and tapped on the shoulder of a worker who was welding on what appeared to be a trailer frame. I guess the big guy liked to be involved in the work, good on him. He was introduced as Sam Adams, the look on his face told me not to make a joke about that name. He wasn’t a tall guy but he had a large frame with well-used, wiry and impressive muscles; he definitely had a no-nonsense look in his eyes. I was looked forward to working with this man.

After exchanging the appropriate pleasantries and me giving a brief summary of my intent, we took a walk out to the demo and Sonya took over explaining what I wanted in detail. She added in a few things I hadn’t even considered, Sam merely nodded and grunted with each specification. At the end of it all he looked at me and said, “Five months, I’ll send you a quote tomorrow and we’ll need a 50% down-payment.”

That was exactly what I expected so I simply replied, “Five days and I’ll pay in full right now – cash in your account today.” That didn’t change a thing and I hadn’t expected it to, as Sam was shaking his head I told him “I’ll pay an expedite fee and pay for the discount you give to the folks I’m jumping ahead of in line.” That earned me a scowl but also a slow nod, I looked to Sonya and she handed him our payment card.

It took him a minute but he reached out and shook my hand and then took the card, I had a trailer on the way. A pretty damn nice one at that.

Money can’t buy you happiness and I know that but it sure can make buying the material things you want easier; I was enjoying this surprise wealth. I suddenly had access to all of the material things that I desired, now I just needed to locate those most elusive desires of all, fulfillment, happiness, and contentment.

After three hours of further discussion and planning with Sam and his staff we left to return home. The drive north was spent ordering up what I considered staple supplies and other items I wanted for my trip. I had to explain to Sonya that I was a bit of a prepper from my upbringing and that, yes, I did want 100lbs of flour. Other items simply confused her but I explained I planned to camp my way across the country and apparently she had never been camping before.

So we gave the on-line stores a workout and I had a lot of what I wanted on its way, often with that fun “free next day delivery”.

We got In-N-Out for dinner; I knew I wouldn’t be able to enjoy those amazing burgers again anytime soon. That’s pretty much how our day ended.