November 25 -- I Check Out Dodge Ram 1500s To Replace The Late, Lamented Tundra

I REALLY would prefer having my Tundra back but alas, 'tis not to be...Tundra is at a "holding area" in Tucson, Arizona, and I'll be stopping on by there in December, on my way to close the buying of the Faranuf house in Portal, for one last look and hopefully to have sold the camper shell, carpet kit and the Yakima RailRider rail system for bikes and kayaks that is drilled into the camper shell roof. (I'm planning on putting it all up on Craig's List -- any takers out there? $1000 and you have to take it away... ) Until then, I'm looking around the Vegas/Henderson area for a replacement truck, and the main contenders are 2014 models that are now making way for the 2015s, so wheeling and dealing is to be made --- Dodge Ram 1500, Ford F-150, and Toyota Tundra. So first up for inspection are the Dodge Rams....I left early as per usual, driving along Lake Mead's scenic Northshore Road. I stopped at Rogers Spring, a desert spring that is a constant 85 degrees or so, and provides habitat for wildlife --

The water issues out of the rock to the right in the last photo; you can see the ripples in the water caused by the water flow. You can swim in it, but it's dangerous to put your head in the water as there is a bacteria in it that, if it gets into your ears, can cause serious injury. And there is an interesting, humorous piece of local history involving Rogers Spring; this is from Lake Mead NRA website -- 

"Rogers Spring and Blue Point Spring both share a colorful history. One story involves a 1903 project to build a canal to divert water from both springs to 500 acres of farmland located several miles south of St. Thomas. During this effort, several industrious men used a horse team, scraper, homemade ditcher and shovels to construct a channel to connect both springs. They tested the channel and discovered that the water flowed only a short distance before soaking in. Undaunted, they lined the ditch with clay to prevent leakage, and when that failed, they borrowed $3,000 and took several months mixing cement by hand and again lining the ditch. Eventually, they were successful in transporting the water to the intended land. However, the project ultimately failed due to economic reasons. The men involved evidently drank the spring water while working on the project. Unfortunately, this water acted as a natural laxative, and these individuals lost a considerable amount of weight. Subsequently, the channel discharging water from Blue Point Spring became known as “Slim Creek.” 

I arrived at Towbin Dodge in Henderson, Nevada and was determined not to let them intimidate me, or persuade me to buy a truck today, as my money situation for the truck is still up in the air. Yes, I could afford one, but I had my upper limit of $30,000 -- and most trucks these days START at that price. Long gone are the days when I could buy the Toyota Tundra with all the extras for $25,000 and have it delivered to me...As I got out of my rental car I was immediately met by a salesman who introduced me to the lot manager, who in turn brought over another salesman who was taking the place of the guy who had e-mailed me the info on Ram 1500s the day before. I could tell the guy wanted to sell me a truck and drive it off the lot TODAY. I asked him about the V6 "EcoDiesel" models, and he gave me a "lowest price" of around $42,000 -- too rich for my blood, and none were on the lot to look at. So I asked about the V8 models, to which he replied "Well, then it has to be a Hemi engine!" Okay...We walked out to a beautiful quad-cab, short-bed, 4WD Ram 1500 with the exterior color of silver/gray, exactly my choice -- 

It had all the extras I was looking for -- towing package, 5 years or 100,000 mile warranty, 4WD ("Let me ask you -- do you REALLY need a 4-wheel-drive?" I should have him read my blog -- YES... ;o) ) and they would add a sprayed-in berliner -- and a front "cowcatcher", as they call it -- a front grille which sure would have come in handy when that deer got in front of Tundra...Ok, now it's time for price haggling ("You're gonna be blown away by how low of a price this truck will go for"). Well, the lowest price was still over my present budget -- $36,000. He had me talk to a manager -- or a guy sitting above us, behind a desk with a computer screen -- who explained that if he sold it for my asking price, they wouldn't be making any money, and there had to be some margin for profit on their end. So I thanked them for their time, water bottle, and popcorn, and that I would continue checking around. The parting line from the salesman was "I'm gonna call you tomorrow!" -- as if I would change my mind and suddenly become $5,000 richer...I headed back to Overton along the always-scenice Northshore Road, got back to Discovery, took a nap (I get up at around 2am these days, having slept about 4 or 5 hours, and need to rest my eyes in the afternoon to get through the rest of the day) and met my friends Felix and Rhoda, veteran "snow birders" from the Ontario province of Canada, for a Tuesday all-you-can-eat dinner of pizza and salad at Carly's, one of 3 restaurants in town (Carly's, Sugar's, and a MacDonald's). It was "dee-lish"....Today the 26th, it's a foray to the Overton Wildlife Management Area -- so long as it's not a "hunt day"...