Saying Good-by to an Old Faithful Friend

This past Friday morning, we woke up to find my beloved Trusty Steed gone from our driveway. Yes, my wonderful 1991 GMC Sierra truck had been stolen in the wee hours of the morning. I loved that truck! It represented so many things and held so many wonderful memories. It was a workhorse of a vehicle. It had a V-8 engine and a 28 gallon gas tank. Mark had just put $60 worth of gas in it the day before. Before you have a stroke at that gas amount, we only had to fill it up about every 3-4 weeks. This is the last picture I took of TS and it was really a shot of the trees changing colors.

What's funny is that the truck actually belongs to my dad, but I'd been driving it since 1994. Shortly before I moved to Fort Worth, I was driving his truck because I was hauling stuff from my apartment in Kerrville back home to San Antonio. He was driving my car, a 1985 Oldsmobile Firenza. He was working the night shift at work when it got stolen. My car was eventually recovered and repaired. For about the first 2 months I was in Fort Worth, I drove a rental car. When my car was ready at the body shop, I drove back to San Antonio to pick it up. However, my dad deemed it not road worthy to make the road trips from Fort Worth to San Antonio, so he gave me his truck to drive. While I was in Seminary, he paid for half the gas, repairs and maintenance, and insurance. When I graduated, the deal was I paid for the gas and upkeep and he paid for the insurance. Over the years, I've talked to him about selling me the truck or transferring the title, but he wouldn't hear of it. He finally put me on his insurance policy several years ago.

Mark LOVED working on that truck! He's poured countless hours into its maintenance and upkeep, tweaking this and that, being sure the oil was changed regularly, and doing much of the repair work on it himself. He's replaced brakes, several alternators, batteries, starters, windshield wipers, fuses, thermostats, and all that stuff. In 2004, the transmission went out on it, so we had the transmission rebuilt. Later that year, we invested in a brand-spankin' new engine for it and had that installed. Shortly after that, we had the AC converted to the newer type of AC system since freon was no longer being manufactured. It ran like a dream and kept us cool in the hot Texas summers.

Trusty Steed has seen over 216,000 miles and hauled countless loads of stuff. It moved me from Kerrville to Fort Worth. It moved stuff to storage when I graduated and then when I moved into my own apartment. It's moved friends. It moved us from our apartment to our home when we moved in 2005. It's hauled loads of brush and limbs to the bulk trash place. It's hauled dirt and stuff for our garden. It survived the hail storm of 1995 with little damage. It survived last year's 17" of snowfall. It was only in one minor fender bender in its entire life. It really had a lot of life left in it.

I'm not holding out much hope that the vehicle will be found, and if it is, I'm not sure I'll want it back. So, farewell my friend. Thank you for your years of faithful service. You'll never be replaced and I'll miss you.