Idaho Part I

So Idaho….Most of you know that there is not a lot of love in my heart for Idaho. It's just not a place I would choose to be. I often wonder why people voluntarily live there. So this last weekend I traveled there under somewhat unfavorable circumstances, but it turned out to be quite valuable. I really don’t feel like delving into the more grave matters so I’ll stick to a couple of lighter ones.

Before I drove the Esperanza:

I drove this:

A 1988 Ford F150, like this one but white and blue with no tailgate and not as shiny. It was a good truck. 170K miles and going strong. It was a standard transmission and had a stick shift that was about 2.5 feet long and had the bench seat so that you could have your girl ride center and put your arm around her. Amazing. The body was almost without blemish until I let my girlfriend borrow it to run errands :). It got about 10 miles to the gallon but was totally reliable.

When it came time to move out to Boston, I decided I needed to move on to a more fuel efficient and compact car. So I sold it to my old man as a favor for 500 bucks. I miss that truck.

This weekend we were doing a lot of home improvement and so we used the old Ford and I got to drive it. Oh, nostalgia. Malick and I drove it out to the old house I grew up in, to get some carpet one night. She still purrs. Once we got the truck loaded up with all the carpet we stopped for a moment to look at the stars. The old house is out in the boonies and the skies are so clear. The stars are brilliant out in Idaho where there are no people to detract from it with artificial lights. We just stood and stared into the night sky for 5 minutes and soaked it in. Maybe there are some things that I love about Idaho. I certainly love that old truck.