The Beginning

So this was an interesting weekend.  For some reason, I got on one of my tangents searching the internet for random things that are generally useless or not relevant to the day-to-day of my life.  Some people watch TV for an escape...apparently I like to search ebay and cragslist.  My target this past Friday - a tailgate vehicle.  Before you pass judgment on just how right my earlier comment was - useless or not relevant to the day-to-day of my life - my partner in crime for tailgates, Jeremy Tancredi and I have been talking about getting a dedicated tailgate mobile for some time now.  With my teams officially done for the year, I guess thinking about tailgating is the only solace I have until the NFL draft when the Browns will undoubtedly give me false hope yet again...but I digress.  Jeremy and I don't even tailgate for the Browns (at least not yet!).  The object of our tailgating efforts is focused on the hometown Buckeyes.


So during my search, I stumble upon a couple good candidates.  One is a white cargo van with a camper loft up top.  Looks real clean and is in Cleveland.  This one would be a nice candidate, but it's a shell and is probably a little bit on the high side of our price range knowing that this is purely a recreation vehicle and would still need a lot of time and money to make it true tailgate machine.  So the search continues at which point I stumble upon a 1990 Ford ambulance that is currently being used as a work truck.  Truth be told, an ambulance has been at the center of the focus after learning from some others the great advantages of an ambulance as a tailgater. . .tons of storage inside and out, a heavy duty vehicle, power galore inside and out, and the best part - according to OSU this is the largest dimension for a vehicle that they'll allow in a regular parking spot.  HUGE advantage to not be pushed all the way out to RV lot.  This one looks pretty good.  Decent miles, fairly clean, and CHEAP.


So over the course of the next 30 minutes Jeremy and I trade several text messages.  He looks, and is thinking the same way I am...looks perfect.  So the interest and excitement starts to build.  The only issue at this point was figuring out exactly how I was going to tell Mindy that I was planning to buy a 22 year old ambulance that would be yet another "project".  I grease the skids. . .the only pushback comes in the form of an edict that it's not being parked in the garage (wouldn't fit anyway), and that we're not building a new garage to hold it...Really?!  Well, it is me.  I've been known to have some pretty cooky ideas.  So with everyone seemingly OK with moving forward including Nancy (Jeremy's wife), I call the owner on Saturday to ask some questions.  Seems like a decent dude and the story he tells furthers the idea that we need to go look at it.


So mid-afternoon on Saturday, all of us including wives and our two girls, head down to Jeffersonville which is close to where the object of our interest is living.  It's an easy sell as I can drop Mindy and the girls off at the outlet mall.  Nancy decides to come along with us and forgo shopping.  She says she's interested in looking, but I suspect it might just be her making sure we don't do something foolish :).  A few minutes after leaving the outlet mall, we're officially in "the sticks".  10 minutes later we arrive at the country abode that the ambulance has been calling home for the past year.  Before we're greeted by any living beings of the human variety we meet two dogs in the their pen and...wait for it...a rooster!  He is keen on meeting us and walks right over to the ambulance.  Maybe it's his and he knows we're there to look?


We end up meeting Jeff, talk for a bit, take it for a nice country drive, negotiate a bit, and within a matter of 30 minutes we had bought it.  Jeremy, in the midst of trying to hide the happy glow from buying this mass of steel, leans to me and says "this is probably the best worst idea we've ever had".  The truth is that this thing could have had some serious problems but once Jeremy heard the air horn (which is pretty impressive BTW), he was sold.  "You had me at air horn!"  So we bought it.  Then the fun and excitement was put on hold as we helped Jeff unload random tools and whole bunch of useless stuff (mostly trash) out of the ambulance and into the barn.  This is when we meet the livestock...a few sheep, a goat, and a 400 lb. pig that Jeff said he couldn't butcher because she was "too cute".  We finish, get the title and we were out of there.


Jeremy and Nancy drive it home and I go their place for a celebratory beer, and of course to start talking about ideas.  We call it a night, and Nancy takes a few pictures before I go (no big surprise there!).  We go our separate ways and then begin trading some txts on all kinds of ideas.  Jeremy tells me he's working on a Powerpoint which elicits a nice hearty laugh from Mindy.  We start talking about names...Mindy suggests Carmen and we both immediately like it.  So for now, she's "Carmen".  For those that don't know, the Ohio State alma mater is called "Carmen Ohio".


There's much on the list to tackle before next season starts, but for now here's a quick picture of her in current form.

This blog will track the conversion of Carmen over the next several months.  We already started today!  More to come in the near future, but until then looking forward to next football season! Even more than I already was...