Li’l Homey Got a Great New Home!

Having decided to find a new home for for Li’l Homey, I posted an ad on craigslist and wrote a blog post about it.

It was two days before the Fourth of July holiday, which is probably one of the largest celebrations in the United States, a party commemorating our independence from England back in 1776. All over the country, we have local home-town parades with marching bands and veterans groups of all ages, families and friends gathering for big picnics in the parks, everyone eating lots of barbequed ribs and potato salad, and then we all crane our necks up to the sky to watch huge fireworks shows. It’s definitely a big deal here in the States.

I obviously wasn’t doing much thinking about all the partying people when I threw this ad together and posted it. Heck, people want to party! They don’t want to buy tiny old trailers.

This year, July 4th is on a Saturday, which makes it an even bigger big deal because people who work where they get holidays off, will get a three-day weekend, with some people even getting a four-day weekend, depending on how their work week is structured. Then others took advantage of the long weekend and took extra days off to get an even longer mini-vacation. The banks were closed on Friday and Saturday so people had to get their weekend money out of the banks before the close of business on Thursday evening or rely on the few hundred they could get per day out of an ATM.

Not the best scenario for buying little bitty vintage trailers.

But what the hey. What was I thinking.

However, within hours of posting the craigslist ad for my little tiny trailer, I had several phone calls and emails from people interested in seeing and possibly purchasing it.

The second person to call me and leave a message was a guy named Chuck. His wife, Pat, emailed me within minutes to tell me her husband had called and left a message; did I get it? These people were serious! After a couple of phone calls back and forth, during which it was revealed that they live in Ventura, CA but had a brother-in-law living in Las Vegas, it was decided that the BIL would come by with money in hand and Chuck and Pat would come over to Vegas next weekend and tow it home. Sounded good to me. I printed up a Bill of Sale and waited for him to arrive.

Ruben the BIL took about five minutes, walked all around the trailer, said “yup, it’s a trailer,” and left. Chuck called to say we had a deal now, right? and I said the first person who hands me money gets the trailer. And Ruben hadn’t given me any money. Apparently Chuck had asked him to but Ruben wasn’t comfortable doing that, not even with going to the local ATM and giving me a deposit, so I said no deal. Ruben and his wife were on their way from Vegas to Ventura to spend the holiday weekend with Chuck and Pat and would be back on Sunday, at which time, they would then bring me money, Ruben being a US Marine and all. (I never did really figure out what that had to do with anything but maybe Chuck was feeling patriotic and everything since it was the 4th of July, you know.) I said that would work if no one else bought the trailer in the meantime. Money talks, Chuck, and I don’t have any from you.

At this point, I even called my son, Mark, just to check in with someone who wasn’t a part of this whole deal to see if I was heading the right direction or not, to see if he had any ideas, really just to bounce it all off someone else, and he was the closest person in my arsenal of “level-headed persons that I know.” He said it all sounded good to him and that, in turn, sounded good to me. Onward…

Over the weekend, I had a couple more inquiries but nothing that got serious and panned out. So come Sunday morning, when Pat called to say they’d drive straight over from Ventura with cash in hand if I would commit to not selling it until they got here, I said yes, sure, come on over, I’d hold it for them.

With that kind of persistence, that kind of commitment, I knew they’d love this little tiny old trailer just as much as I do. And that’s what I wanted. Someone who knew she had good bones and potential, even though she’s elderly and has a few dings in her. That’s all I wanted.

Well, that, and cash money, too, of course.

Fast forward to today, Monday.

Wait. Today won’t happen if we don’t talk about yesterday.

Yesterday, Chuck and Pat showed up after a long six hour drive, with cash in hand, ready to sign some papers and pass some money. So we did. Sign papers, that is. I took the cash and counted it. They took the keys, with a promise they’d be back the next morning to hook up and tow Li’l Homey home to Ventura.

Except it didn’t happen that easily. They had the wrong wiring connector and the wrong hitch thingy. After a few texts back and forth, and a bunch of stops by them at a bunch of places trying to find the right pieces of hardware, they finally arrived about 3 PM. We got them all hooked up and on their way back to Ventura by 3:30; I even got a couple of pics of them with Li’l Homey and took a “last drive away” video as they drove down the block and made the left turn, going away forever. On to new adventures!

I thought I’d have some “feelings” about Li’l Homey driving away from my life after all we’ve been through in the past three years, but I realized all I felt was elation, excitement, and anticipation for the new adventures that are headed my way. Li’l Homey was going to be well-taken-care-of and I could trust Chuck and Pat to do right by her. I know they will. Li’l Homey is getting new adventures, and so am I!

I really can’t wait to see what unfolds next in my life. As I mentioned in the last post, there are things on my to-do list that I can now go do, and I fully intend to. But what order they happen in and whether or not something else will show up that happens instead is yet to be seen.

This is the part I like, the not-knowing, the mystery, the change that’s coming that I don’t know about until it gets here. I’m pretty sure I’m gonna really like what’s coming! Wish you were all here to experience it with me; since you’re not, I hope you enjoy reading along instead and maybe you’ll be inspired to find an adventure of your own, one that you didn’t expect to find. They’re everywhere, those adventures… they’re just around the next corner.

See you out in the world somewhere!