1999 Toyota Tacoma

Well we did it. We finally caved and decided we couldn't continue to have only a five seat car (would be a tight back row as the kids get older too) and my truck. So, as the timing was right, and we had the opportunity to buy a very good maintained (mechanically speaking) mini van at auction price, we took the opportunity. So now Julie is driving a 2006 Chrysler Town and Country; 7 passenger. It is pretty nice, and we are already happy we bought it. But that is not this story, this story is about the other two vehicles we had and what we were going to do with them.

Julie and I are really not into having a lot of stuff. We are constantly talking about what we can get rid of next to simplify our life's further. So the idea of having three vehicles for only two drivers didn't fit. However, we were both fondly attached to our current vehicles. Julie had a 1998 Subaru Legacy Outback, and I a 1999 Toyota Tacoma. They were both in great condition, neither had ever been in any major accident, they both had 96,000-97,000 miles on them (remarkably low given the age), and both were running great and showing no signs of major problems in the short term future.

But in the end Julie won, and we decided the smart thing to do was keep the Subaru. The van does not have all wheel or four wheel drive, so we really wanted something that would be good for the family to take into the mountains or even just the snow. My truck won't cut it for five. Even for four it will be a little tight in another year or two; the back seats are pretty small. On top of that, the Subaru gets a little better gas mileage, and had a much lower residual value. So we sold my truck.

The truck was the first major purchase of my life. I took out a loan to buy it, but quickly paid it off within the first six months. When I bought it, I was so excited to have a nice new vehicle. About a month later, I felt like I had wasted money, and should have bought something a few years old. I then decided I would drive the truck until the day it totally died, and would proceed to walk home when it happened. I figured that would be around twenty years. I made it half way, but also now believe if I stuck to that commitment, I would realistically have driven it until I couldn't drive anymore, Toyota's really are that good.

So why a post about a truck. First, I wanted too; ha, maybe you should be asking why you are reading a post about a truck... Really though, this truck was a huge part of my life. We drove away from our wedding in it. I used it as the primary moving truck when I moved into the Hitchings basement apartment with Julie, and again when we moved to our first and then second (current) house. I don't have many Scuba diving or hiking trip memories that didn't include the truck at some point. Even the silly things that happened or didn't are great memories. When I first bought the truck (well really until the day I sold it) I didn't like people eating in it, I was a little freakish about keeping it clean on the inside (the outside not so much). Mason (Hitchings) who was probably around four or five at the time we lived in their house used to love to joke with Julie about everything they were going to eat in my truck; 'We'll have ice cream, and put lots of chocolate sauce on it, maybe marshmallow cream, it will be so sticky and good...' And then how much Paige and Jonah would love to ride in the back, just as I was moving stuff from the house to the back of our property. They found it so exciting to be in the open air, without any restrictions, moving. The last great memories though are with Jack. Jack is obsessed with vehicles. Jack wants to ride in or drive just about every different vehicle he sees; the reason he calls motorcycle's "Jack-do!" But Jack had a certain fondness for my truck. I think a little because he didn't get to ride in it much. The back seat is not big enough for a car seat, only a boaster, and he isn't really big enough for that yet. So imagine a kid obsessed with vehicles and having one in his garage that he can't even ride in. Every morning when I leave for work he stands at the window telling the others that "Daddy go bye-bye in his truck, daddy truck, daddy truck." I think it was sadder that the truck left, than me. So anyway, when I could give Jack a ride I would; moving in or out of the garage, or moving cars around when changing the oil, etc.


Once sold it though, I decided we all need to take a drive together. So we put Jonah and Jack in the back in booster seats, and then Paige in the front in a booster seat. This left the hump for Julie. She managed to get both legs into the passenger side, but shifting for me was difficult. We have been in tight cars before, primarily in South America, where the laws are not quite the same as in the states, but this was really the tightest drive we have ever had legally. We only went a few miles looking at Christmas lights, it was nice. Jack was excited to take a real ride in my truck, and Paige was excited to sit in the front for the first time ever (I was able to turn off the passenger airbags).

The next day I drove my truck to work, met the guy who was buying it in the afternoon, and Julie and the kids picked me up that night. I am already adjusting to the car though, not having to shift in traffic is nice, plus the heated seats have been nice with the cold weather we have been having. But, when summer rolls around, and I can't just go pickup a load of dirt, or we can't just throw our backpacks in the back when we leave for a hiking trip, it will be sad again.