In which we buy a new truck and explore a bunker....

 As you already know, Mike and I finally, finally bought a truck last month. This has been a dream purchase for a long time. As a horse trainer, I was never able to afford a truck. As soon as I landed the Big Kid Job, getting a truck became my number one goal. Of course, because my life always has to have a bit of an ironic twist, me finally being able to entertain buying a truck coincided with sky high gas prices and a vehicle shortage. Still, Mike and I started casually browsing for a used truck online.

The first truck we went to look at was up near Albany, against our better judgement. Mike has a pretty firm rule against buying trucks in New York due to the salt/rust situation. Still, this truck looked beautiful on paper and fit all the criteria we were looking for. 

So we drove four ours to the tiny town of Amsterdam and pulled into a Chevy dealership. Mike took one look at the truck and knew we weren't taking it home. For starters, it had an industrial grade fifth wheel shoe in the bed, which the dealership had not disclosed online. Furthermore, there was a lot of rust for a truck this new. Plus, whoever did the undercoating had done a shoddy job.

On top of all that, the salesman at the dealership rubbed me all wrong. He was slimy and pushy and did that thing were he only makes eye contact with the man in the relationship, even after Mike mentioned that the truck was going to be primarily for my use. On top of that, we got an immediate dishonest vibe off the guy. Mike asked what he knew about the truck, and the salesman quickly said, "We don't know much about it..."

Still, we had driven all that way, so we took the truck for a test drive. I wanted to see how I felt about the size of it and how it handled, plus I was curious about all the bells and whistles that come with the newer trucks. I immediately fell in love with this truck and I was super disappointed that we'd driven all this way not to take it home.

The icing on the cake was when we got back to the dealership. Mike told the salesman that we would not be taking this truck home. The salesman replied, "May I ask why?"

"The fifth wheel is a deal breaker for us."

"Really? Why is that?"

"Because it tells that probably all the miles on this truck have been towing a heavy load."

"Oh, no, not at all! The owner just used it to haul his camper..."

Really? I thought you didn't know anything about this truck? So now Mike and I have a joke about trucks hauling "campers". 

Technically just a camper.

Another possible "camper".

We got back in the Rav for the long drive home. It was back to the drawing board. I was texting back and forth with Dawn. She asked, "What are you guys looking for in a truck?"

I listed our criteria: 2015-2019 Chevy 2500 LT Z71 under 60k miles, or GMC equivalent. I also included our price range. That was the part that was going to be a challenge. 

(When I told my barn owner, she shook her head and said, "You're going to have a hard time finding that in your price range." But she doesn't know how Mike and I can manifest the things we need...)

Then I got on Carfax's website and plugged in what we were looking for. A few pages in, I found a truck in South Jersey that fit the description of what we were looking for. 

"Have you seen this one?" I asked Mike, showing him my screen.

"No! Where is that one?" he asked. 

"Point Buick GMC in Pennsgrove... never heard of it."

The following weekend, we drove down to Pennsgrove to look at the truck I found online. It was a 2017 Chevy 2500 HD LT Z71 with 39,000 miles, right at the top of our budget.

This dealership experience was like night and day from the New York experience. 

This time, Mike called ahead to ask about the truck. "Does it have a fifth wheel shoe in the bed?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," the salesman replied. "Let me go check. I'll call you right back." A few minutes later, the phone rang. "I'm sorry, sir. This truck does not have a fifth wheel hook up, but we could look into adding one on for you..."

Mike laughed out loud. "No no! We specifically do not want one. We'll be there in about two hours. Thank you."

We found the truck on the lot before we even went inside. Mike crawled underneath it and grinned. No rust. No badly done undercoating. The truck was pristine. 

"We're buying this truck," Mike declared triumphantly.

As we walked towards the front door of the dealership, an eagle circled lazily overhead. This many sound crazy, but that was our sign.

We took the truck for a test drive to make sure everything felt and sounded good. Then we came back inside and closed the deal. The dealership was super easy to work with. They weren't pushy or sleazy. They talked to me as much as they talked to Mike. We are financing through the bank so we couldn't bring the truck home that same day. Instead, we filled out the necessary paperwork and arranged to pick the truck up after work on Monday. 

All of this has been a very round about way of saying that Mike and I found ourselves near the Delaware border one Saturday afternoon with nothing to do. We decided to spend some time exploring the area since our travels rarely take us in that direction. After a quick lunch, I pulled up a map and spotted a lighthouse nearby. I love lighthouses so we decided to take a quick detour to check it out.

The lighthouse is Finn's Point Lighthouse, and you can learn all about it here. It was one of a pair of lighthouses that used to guide ships into the Delaware River in the late 1800's. The other light has been demolished and this one is decommissioned, but it was still cool to see.

Our plan from there was to go check out the wildlife refuge around the corner, but I got mixed up looking at the map and we took a wrong turn. This ended up being a lucky mistake. As we rounded a bend, I exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, is that a bunker?!!? Pull over! I have to take a picture for Carlos..."

It turned out we had accidentally ended up at For Mott, which I didn't even know existed. Not only was this the coolest and most expansive bunker we've seen to date, it was open to the public for walking tours and exploration.  

Fort Mott was one of three forts to guard the mouth of the Delaware River in the years following the Civil War. The fort is unique in that it was designed to fight off both attacks from the bay and from the land side, using  a parados and a moat at the rear of the gun batteries. While the actual guns themselves are no longer physically at the fort, we did get to see some of the ammunition, which was insane. 

Mike and I ended up spending over an hour checking out the fort and learning about its history. My inner nerd was quite happy and I took a million photos.

Our first glimpse of the bunkers.

Imagine my delight at being able to go inside and on top of the bunker!!

Delaware across the way.

Fort Delaware across the way. There is a seasonal ferry you can take to Pea Patch Island. I have added it to our to-do list. 

Inside the gun battery.

View of the Salem and Hope nuclear power plant across the bay.

It was surprising to find all these parks and historic sites in such an industrial area. I never would have thought to explore here if it hadn't been for the truck.

The pier where the ferry operates. 

One of the guard towers.

A separate storage building for the ammunition. 

Walking through the railway tunnel.

The sheer size of this place was impressive.

I was quite disappointed we couldn't climb this tower.

We stopped in the little museum building to check out various displays. 

Our final stop was the pier.

Just a local pulling a huge fish out of the bay.

The fort is disguised to just look like a hill from the water. The guns were on disappearing carriages to further hide the fort. 

After we'd poked around the fort to our heart's content, Mike and I packed it in and made the drive home. It had been a good day, between buying our new truck and taking a little detour on the way back. 

More on our adventures with the new truck in future posts...