New truck!

Thanks for your prayers, everyone! The truck hunt was successful!

It is a '97 Ford F150 with a v8 5.4L engine! And it also is a 4x4. I feel like I actually own a real truck now! ;0)

Yes, I know, it isn't red . . . but that's okay. Despite it's rather high mileage (184K), it is in great shape . . . the transmission shifts tight and the engine runs really quiet! The previous owner took great car of it!

As you can see, it is not as cramped as Muscles! And since it is an automatic, I can probably convince my sisters to ride in it with me. ;0)

So how did we stumble across this truck? Well, we hit a good amount of dealerships from Chehalis to Tacoma, but really, it is hard to find a truck in my price range that is not ancient at a dealership. We eventually got really tired of assertive salesmen and overpriced trucks, and decided to take a shot on a couple of Craigslist possibilities . . .

The first craigslist truck we took a shot on was hilarious. It had low miles and looked good--from the pictures. In reality, it was really beat up. And I mean really. We decided to test drive it anyway . . . but when my dad turned the key--you guessed it--the truck didn't start. The owner and his family, who were all Hispanic--started bustling around jabbering things to each other En Espanol. One guy popped the hood and, muttering something about the grounding wire to us in broken English, literally began pounding away on the battery with a rock! This was the same amigo who told us that he had also replaced the brake cylinder by himself . . .

My dad and I looked at each other in stunned amazement, and I said, "Hey, we are running late for that other meeting we didn't know we had! I think we gotta go!"

A jump start later, my dad and I literally took the shortest test drive ever recorded by man, left the truck running in its owner's driveway in hopes that the battery would charge up for the next person coming to test drive it, and politely said that "We are going to keep looking, but good luck!"

My dad joked when we were back in our car that, "It would have rocked our world to buy that truck, but they wouldn't throw in the rock!" ;0) *face palm*

Our next test drive went much better, as it turned out to be the truck that I would eventually buy. The owner, also Hispanic, was pretty proud of how he kept up his vehicles, and we learned later that he was a Christian! It was pretty cool.

The truck drove great and everything worked! It seemed well worth the $3,000 the owner wanted for it! So I bought it. :0)

Now for the minor prayer request. As we were driving home, the check engine light decided to come on. (great timing, right?) It has since turned off again . . . but then back on just yesterday evening while I was driving home from work. We were planning to take it in to our mechanic anyway just to make sure everything is running right, so please pray that it is nothing serious! I can't imagine it being anything to major due to the great shape the engine is in . . .

So, blog followers, any suggestions on what I should call my new truck?? ;0)