The one thing you probably shouldn't do is buy a truck, let alone one from the 80's and plan on driving it back across the country sight unseen. Well, traditionally speaking. After I stumbled acrossethis truck, lets call it destiny, I had the hair brain idea of driving it home. No big deal. I got on Google maps and typed in the destinations and it looked like it would be somewhere around 1300 miles. Dallas, TX to Colstrip, MT. It would take a couple of days to drive. If I had one reason I love google maps it would be how you can drag the lines on the map towards roads that you want to take. Naturally, since I now own a military expedition truck, I better do some expeditioning. The simplest way to do that is drag the arrow on the map to Moab, UT. Once you look at that, I better stop in at a few other places along the way. Very quickly 1300 miles turns into 2500 miles. Hey, I got time. I don't have to be back to work until the 7th in January. That gives me... 10 or 12 days.
The only hitch to the plan at this point goes back to the good old song where the guy is talking about how he can only drive the national speed limit that provides you the optimum fuel mileage. By the way, this truck that I am the new proud owner of tops out about that speed, stock at least. 2500 miles/55 mph = sore buttocks.
So there is a plan in place. No problem, it all adds up. Fly to Texas from Portland, drive the truck home to MT, and then fly back to Portland from MT. Simple. I managed to score some cheap tickets from a wonderful airline. $200 to fly to DFW?!! I'm there! At that price I was even able to convince a friend of mine to come along on the trip. Luckily she was one of those types who understand that a good adventure does not come from thinking with your brain, but often quite the opposite. And she didn't have any plans over Christmas at the time. Who would want to go to Hawaii at that time of the year anyways?!
So we headed towards Portland to hop on the red-eye flight I was so proud of for finding at $200 a piece. Damn I'm good. Except for the part where the flight was cancelled an hour before it took off do to mechanical problems. Whoops, and by the way, airline tickets around Christmas increase for some strange reason.
So two days later, and with a lighter pocketbook, we were off to Texas!
Why wouldn't someone buy a truck that's kind of like a camper, sight unseen, plan on stopping at Cabelas before you left town, and camp out in it for 2500 miles? Come on America! Stop coddling your kids! So thats what we did!
I do have to say when I first saw the truck I felt like a kid again! It started up and the diesel engine came to life flowing with potential in every stroke of the motor. It wasn't an obnoxious sound like you hear when your getting passed by a bro in his pickup, but more of a sound of an elegant piece of machinery that rang with love from the time the engineers spent hours with drawings through the point the the person loaded it onto the truck to its new destination and home. Granted this truck was originally designed to go war, I could tell she had been stuck in Texas too long and wanted adventure! You could tell from the sound of the engine. I have to say it was love at first sight.
We bought some foam pads and camped out next to Cabelas the first night. The truck was originally designed for being a military ambulance or radio truck so it has this amazing camper style body on the back. Of course this is was attracted me to this vehicle in the first place. This particular vehicle had found its way to being a truck used by the SWAT team outside of Dallas. She had ~21,000 miles on her when we picked her up. That was to very quickly change.
The second night was when I learned how truly awesome of a truck she was, camped outside of Caprock Canyon State Park.
The rear of the truck is what makes it such an exceptional vehicle.
Super comfy and super fun to camp out in!
So after the first real night of camping out in the truck, at least away from the city, I knew I was in for a treat of an adventure!
