The First Big Step

You know those really obnoxious pickup trucks? No, not the ones that have monster wheels and sit 15 feet off the ground. There's really no excuse for those.

I'm talking about the kind that almost looks like a regular truck, but instead of having two wheels along the back axle, it has four, causing the truck to have "hips" that stick out past where the truck's side should end. The kind of truck where you think, "Now, why would anyone possibly need something like that?" You know the ones I'm talking about?

Yeah. We own one now.

We also possess the distinction of being the only people in America to have owned a Prius, a minivan, and a one-ton truck within the course of a year. We don't plan well.

It's a Dodge Ram 3500 Mega Cab Dually with a diesel engine. (I think. This is really Steve's realm.)

The thing an absolute beast. In my last post I made mention of the Canyonero because it reminded me of the name Mountaineer. Well, this truck truly is a Canyonero, minus the seating for 30 people.

We don't have running boards yet, so getting in and out of the truck takes acrobatic skill. We were getting ready to leave the dealership and I realized that I hadn't turned off the light in the back. Elias couldn't reach it from his car seat, so I had to get out and do it. I opened my door and put my right foot down...and down...and down...until my right foot was just barely touching the ground and my left foot was stuck on the seat. I stood there in a vertical split, trying to twist my body to free my left foot while pretending that the people in the doorway of the dealership weren't staring at me.

Oh, and getting Anna into the car takes some effort, too. I literally have to lift her over my head to get her into her seat. While standing on the outside of the truck, the top of my head is only about six inches above the top of her car seat. This could be fun...

The reason we need a truck this size is because we need a lot of power to pull the fifth wheel. We didn't need to get the dually (the four wheels on the back axle), but we see it as a safety feature. It offers more stability, plus if a wheel blows out on the back, we have three more on the road. Keep in mind that the weight of the fifth wheel will be concentrated over the back axle of the truck, so that's important.

Here are the "hips" I was talking about:

Now, I had panic attacks for three weeks each time I had to drive our new Odyssey because it was so big. The Ram is even longer (it won't fit in our driveway) and significantly wider. Steve and I are going to place bets on how long it will be before I actually attempt to drive it. I can't see any situations in which I'd need to drive it--short of Steve being mauled by mountain lions--but it's always best to prepare for the unexpected, I suppose.

Despite how big and rugged it looks on the outside, the inside looks like the interior of a nice family car.

I can definitely picture myself being chauffeured around the country in it.

The back seat is extremely spacious:

There's probably enough floor space that I can change diapers on it. Heck, it can practically be a playroom for the kids.

It's called a Mega Cab because instead of the back window being right up against the back seat, there's a little extra space. Not a lot, but enough room for a couple backpacks, a diaper bag, a medical kit, and whatever little things we might need in the car on a long road trip. It also means that the tether anchors (for car seats) are not only metal, but are very easily accessible, something that is a rarity in pickup trucks.

The truck has some pretty neat other features. Supposedly we can download CDs and photos right into a hard drive in the dashboard. The rear entertainment system picks up the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network. (That's not necessarily a positive--we have made it clear to Elias that watching it will be a sometimes thing, not an all the time thing. But on long trips, he'll need some distraction.) It also has a parking assist sensor, so in case Steve is ever mauled by those mountain lions, I can parallel park when I drop him off at the hospital.