Eventually, the logging road ended in a turnaround.
“We’ll have to walk a short distance from here. I haven’t punched through a road to the property yet.”
“You sure you can handle it with your leg?” Jenny asked.
“No problem. It’s easy walking, and there is a trail.”
In less than a quarter mile, they broke out of the forest into a large clearing at the top of the mountain, and before them was an incredible three-hundred-sixty-degree view.
Hugh led them to a large, flat-topped rock, which they climbed up on.
“If you look that way,” Hugh said, pointing east, “you can see Montana.” He turned them around facing in the opposite direction. “If you look that way,” Hugh pointed toward the west, “you can see Washington State.” He then pointed them north. “And that is Canada.”
Jenny had a stunned look on her face, and she said, “Hugh, I know this place. This is where you proposed.”
“That’s right, sweetie.”
“You mean, you own this?”
“Yup. Remember? The first time I brought you here I told you it was my favorite place? That’s why. It’s my place; ours now.”
“Why didn’t you say so before?” Jenny asked.
“At the time, I just thought it was more important to know you would marry me more for who I am rather than for what I own,” he said.
“You know I’m not like that. Right?”
“I do now, sweetie. What’s important is you like this property. We might be growing old together here some day.”
“Oh, absolutely. I love it.”
The next morning, around ten, Hugh left the ranch in his big rig with Roly following in his pickup truck. Hugh had told Jenny he was taking his truck to the Spokane Freightliner dealership for service. It wasn’t completely a lie. The truck would be serviced when he got there.
But there was definitely more to the story.
When Hugh pulled into the dealer’s lot and parked, he met Roly as they walked over toward the service department.
“OK, Roly. What you are about to see is a major big secret.”
“You’ve definitely got my attention, brother.”
“Just so you know, not a word to anybody, especially Jenny.”
“I get it,” Roly said, becoming impatient. “What is it?”
Hugh led Roly to the first large service bay, and pointed to a semi-truck where workers were finishing up with getting it detailed.
“That,” Hugh said.
Hugh watched his little brother’s expression as he took in all of what he was seeing. Surprise. Shock. Amazement. All registered on Roly’s face.
“Are you saying this is yours?”
“Yup. I’m trading in my rig, and this is going to be my and Jenny’s home on the road.”
“Incredible. Can I take a look?”
“Absolutely. Climb aboard.”
This was the first time Hugh had seen his new truck “in the flesh.” Before now, he had picked out features online, and had seen progress photos as the custom sleeper company had built the new sleeper onto the stretched-wheelbase Freightliner Cascadia.
Hugh had opted for the built-in rather than the bolt-on model. The custom sleeper, the whole one hundred twenty inches length of it, was molded as a unit into the Freightliner’s cab.
This new sleeper was more than twice as long as the bunk-style sleeper in his other truck, and it had many more features than the other one. It had a side entrance, like in a camper recreational vehicle. It had a full-size bed across the back end that revealed a table and booth seats when the bed was swung up against the back wall and latched.
The kitchen was outfitted with a microwave-convection oven combination, a two-burner, glass-top electric stove, and a sink. On the opposite wall was an apartment-sized upper-lower fridge and freezer.
To the right of that was a door that opened into a wet bath, which was a conventional RV type toilet with a shower fixture on the wall above it.
Cabinets lined the upper walls of the whole sleeper on three sides, and cupboards and drawers filled every available space underneath the Corian countertop.
The sleeper had numerous typical RV features like a rain-sensing ceiling vent fan with remote control, lights everywhere, control panels for the APU, heating and cooling, and switches for various things like turning on the water pump.
“Do you think Jenny will like this?” Hugh asked.
“If she’s as speechless about it as I am right now I can guarantee you she’ll love it,” Roly replied. ‘You could definitely live here.”
Hugh pointed out where the recess in the floor for the side door entrance had a trap door floor that could be lowered over the steps, and where a part of the counter could be lifted up on that end to serve as counter extension. It would serve as a little table for someone to use if the bed was down and occupied.
Hugh gave the rest of his new truck a good inspection, making sure everything was to his specifications. He had ordered upgraded custom seats with all the bells and whistles. One special feature was a memory function that would adjust the seat according to a pre-set configuration at the push of a button – one setting for Hugh, and one setting for Jenny.
He settled with the dealer, signed over his truck as a trade-in, and then he and Roly went to his “old” rig to empty it out of all of Hugh’s and Jenny’s personal items as well as everything else Hugh would need to transfer to the new truck.
Driving back to the ranch, Hugh said, “Well, Roly. This is it. Tomorrow’s the big day.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Yellowstone National Park was beautiful in the late fall. The summer crowds had already left when Hugh and Jenny had arrived there on the first leg of their honeymoon trip. Hugh had proposed they take a couple of weeks off after their wedding to do the tourist thing. Jenny had
