Last weekend I went down to Oregon to collect my little truck...
My friend I-fan came along for the voyage and to collect some stuff she had ordered from a US store that had arrived.
The plan was to take public transport down to the big town in Oregon near where the little truck was, on Saturday; Collect the little truck, stay the night, and then drive back to Vancover on Sunday with a bit of sight seeing and a stop to collect I-fan's stuff.
We decided to take the train... Its been such a long time since I took a train ride :))
It turned out the first leg of the "train ride" was by bus though! From Vancouver to Seattle (just over the boarder in the US) was a regular coach bus. Then there was a break while the train loaded which we used to go get breakfast and a coffee at a nice little cafe near the station. And then the rest of the day was a rather pleasant train ride through the Pacific NorthWest with all the fall colours of the countryside sliding pleasantly by :)
In due course we arrived at our destination and after a phone call or two, we took a cab to a local hotel and then set about finding a suitable dinner. A couple of hours later I heard the distinctive rumble of a V8 engine pull up in front of the hotel and a quick glance out the window confirmed that it was indeed Mike bringing my little truck over.
I hurried down to meet him and did a bit of a walk around the truck ... Niiiice! :)
Anyway, then I drove Mike back to his shop and we had a more thorough look at all the work he had done. I was very pleased with it...
Then I drove back to the hotel for the night.
Next morning, we headed off through the local countryside following a little road tour to a few of the local covered bridges...
There are about a half dozen of them in the area and it was just interesting to see them...
The obvious question that springs to mind about these bridges is "Why cover them?"
And the answer is that without the cover, the bridge would last about 10-15 years, but with the cover they last 80 years or more... And, when these bridges were built, they were actually private business concerns. They were built by private citizens rather than local governments, and there was a small toll for the public to cross them (I read 5c for a horse-and-rider and 3c per head of livestock).
All that aside, we had a nice little tour of the local country side while the little truck got a bit of a run in before setting out on the long drive back North... Actually, its been about four years since I drove any vehicle with more than two wheels, so I was getting a bit of practice too :)
The truck was going fine after the little tour, so we got on the big I5 highway and headed North...
The trip went well but the little truck was quite a "handfull" to controll at highway speeds. The truck has such a short wheel-base that steering is very "twitchy". That just means you have to pay attention while driving, but the problem was greatly compounded by the absolutely terrible tires that it had on...
They are big tires with a high sidewall profile, and made from a really hard compound rubber with large lugs... They would be great for driving around in the mud, but they are about the roughest and noisiest things you could put on it and just to add to the challenge, they were quite baddly worn too... Wich all added up to about the worst highway handling possible...
So, I took it fairly slowly and planned to change the tires as soon as I got back to Vancouver.
Another unexpected and interesting experience on the drive North was all the attention from other people that the little truck gets! It actually became a bit of a sport for us... Spotting people in other cars on the highway staring at it.
I got more "thumbs up" and smiles and nods etc. in a few hours than I think I ever got riding my big motorbike with all the flags of the countries Id been to plastered on the panniers.
And whenever we stopped for fuel (which, saddly, was very frequently with the V8 engine!) or food, Id invariably end up in a short conversation with someone every few minutes about the little truck... It was mostly with guys but women also seem to like it and ask about it.
So it seems that my little truck is a "female"... Shes deffinitely "a bit of a flirt" with the boys... They all want to "get to know her" and come trotting over with their toungs hanging out, their eyes a bit wide, and big smiles on their faces... Its quite funny to watch :)
And Ive already had someone ask me if I want to sell it within a day of getting it back to Vancouver!
... But thats not at all why I did the project, and I dont think anyone has any real idea of what it actually cost to get the Bronco back to this kind of condition.
It is of course quite flattering that so many people like the little truck the way I like it, but Im not sure I like all the attention that it generates... Its a pretty repetetive conversation Im always having... "Yeah, its a 72... Yeah 302 V8 engine... Yeah thanks, I like it too..... More than you think it costs"...etc.etc.
No, Im not interested in selling it or even in the complements it gets. (Though those compliments really should go to Mike who did all the restoration work, not me!)
Ill just be happy to use it as my winter transport and tinker away on it for quite a while I think :)
