The Ranger is dead. I’ve been meaning to update for the last six weeks, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do so. I loved that 1997 Ford Ranger pickup. It was good to me. And now it’s gone.<\/p>\n
That truck got me to the beach and back more times than I can count, when I lived in SoCal. The floor had a 1-2 inch permanent layer of sand on the floor. The bed was covered in surf wax. My board was always sticking out the back.<\/p>\n
When I moved back to NorCal the Ranger got me up to the mountains often. I’d take it off-road (it had great ground clearance), down fire trails and logging roads to the best fly fishing spots.<\/p>\n
The Ranger has single-handedly moved my stuff several times over the last ten years.<\/p>\n
But the time has come to say good bye. I brought it to the Ford dealer to fix all the nagging problems as of late. Just to get it smog ready and legal (so I could register it) was going to cost me 2,000 dollars.<\/p>\n
“Stop. Stop. Just stop what you’re doing,” I told the service manager. “Don’t put it back together, don’t fix anything else. Just stop.”<\/p>\n
The next day I signed over the pink slip for the cost of the repair’s running total (around a grand) and wiped my hands clean.<\/p>\n
“Good bye, old friend,” I said as I ran my hand over the hood one last time. The end of an era.<\/p>\n
**********<\/p>\n
And a new one begins! As soon as the service manager called me and broke the bad news I knew exactly what I was going to do. I knew what I wanted right away.<\/p>\n
I wanted a Yaris! A 2008 Toyota Yaris<\/a> liftback in Bayou Blue with an automatic transmission and the power package.<\/p>\n It’s a great little commuter car. I’m getting almost 400 miles on a full tank of gas (about 11 gallons). And for such a small car it’s very comfortable, even for a big guy like me. The ride is smooth and the inside is nice and quiet. I’m quite happy with it =) I’m looking forward to a summer full of road trips.<\/p>\n![\"Me](\"http:\/\/www.teebiss.com\/photoalbums\/yaris\/images\/me_yaris_close.jpg\")
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