Vince’s Old Pickup

Our old Chevy S-10 is a 1996 model. When we first moved to Kentucky, we didn’t have a pickup; we lived out in the country and needed a pickup so I talked Vince into buying the pickup. He actually had an old Ford F250 at the time but it was all fixed up nice and he wasn’t about to use it to haul anything so, basically, it was his toy . . til he cut a tree and it fell on the truck! 🙁

We used the S-10 quite a bit when we first got it and in. When Chad started driving, Vince gave Chad the Mazda 626 and Vince used the pickup. Then in 2007, we had to put a new engine in it. We started to Joplin in it one Saturday and the engine did whatever engines do when they are done! That’s when we bought the Highlander. The plan was that we would sell the pickup for whatever you can get for a truck with no engine, Vince would take my 2001 Honda CRV and I would drive the Highlander. The plan was NOT that I would drive the Highlander forever though! 🙂

Then, Vince decided he would put a new engine in the pickup and I’m glad he did. When we moved here in 2011, we considered not bringing the pickup with us. It was already 15 years old. We kept it and . . again, I’m glad we did.

We didn’t realize living out in the country where the houses are so far apart would mean no trash pickup. If we didn’t have that old truck, I’m not sure what we would have done . . bought another one I suppose.

Vince did back into a tree and now the old truck has a white tailgate from a junkyard. The pickup makes the 4 mile one way trip to the landfill about once every two weeks in the summer; sometimes once a month in the winter.

We get our vehicles inspected at the oil change place. Last year when Vince took it in to be inspected, it had been a year since the oil was changed so he asked them to change it but they said . . you’ve only put 200 miles on it since last year so they didn’t change the oil. Today, a year later, Vince went back for the inspection and they said . . you haven’t even been 500 miles since the oil was changed two years ago so, again, no oil change. Poor, old truck, it’s probably feeling very neglected. It’s our only vehicle with a trailer hitch so once a year or so when Vince needs something from Home Depot that involves using the trailer, the truck makes a trip all the way to town.

I keep saying I would like for us to have two vehicles – we can keep the Highlander for every day running around town, buy a new pickup for our main vehicle. There are so many times we go to Abilene and wish we had room to bring back more stuff. Even shopping at Sam’s, if we buy much of anything, it won’t fit in the car and since we sometimes don’t go to Abilene but once every three or four months, there’s often a lot we want to get there.

Vince doesn’t really like driving a pickup. I think he would if he got used to it but that’s his call. I look at what it costs us to keep that third vehicle – the old pickup, and it’s definitely not enough to complain about. Liability insurance is inexpensive, Texas registration isn’t a lot, though it isn’t based on value – all our vehicles cost the same to get registered, but they’re all pretty old.

Texas does have an antique license plate available and those vehicles do not have to have annual inspections but vehicles with the antique plates are only supposed to be driven to parades, car shows, etc. I could see Vince getting stopped with his “antique” pickup loaded with trash going to the landfill. There’s also a “classic” plate for vehicles over 25 years but they have to be inspected annually – just like any any other vehicle so we just keep regular plates on the old truck.

Now . . if they had a driver’s license for antique drivers, we might could catch a break there! 🙂