The Ranger is dead. I’ve been meaning to update for the last six weeks, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do so. I loved that 1997 Ford Ranger pickup. It was good to me. And now it’s gone.

That truck got me to the beach and back more times than I can count, when I lived in SoCal. The floor had a 1-2 inch permanent layer of sand on the floor. The bed was covered in surf wax. My board was always sticking out the back.

When I moved back to NorCal the Ranger got me up to the mountains often. I’d take it off-road (it had great ground clearance), down fire trails and logging roads to the best fly fishing spots.

The Ranger has single-handedly moved my stuff several times over the last ten years.

But the time has come to say good bye. I brought it to the Ford dealer to fix all the nagging problems as of late. Just to get it smog ready and legal (so I could register it) was going to cost me 2,000 dollars.

“Stop. Stop. Just stop what you’re doing,” I told the service manager. “Don’t put it back together, don’t fix anything else. Just stop.”

The next day I signed over the pink slip for the cost of the repair’s running total (around a grand) and wiped my hands clean.

“Good bye, old friend,” I said as I ran my hand over the hood one last time. The end of an era.

**********

And a new one begins! As soon as the service manager called me and broke the bad news I knew exactly what I was going to do. I knew what I wanted right away.

I wanted a Yaris! A 2008 Toyota Yaris liftback in Bayou Blue with an automatic transmission and the power package.

It’s a great little commuter car. I’m getting almost 400 miles on a full tank of gas (about 11 gallons). And for such a small car it’s very comfortable, even for a big guy like me. The ride is smooth and the inside is nice and quiet. I’m quite happy with it =) I’m looking forward to a summer full of road trips.

You can view more pictures here.

It’s not my dream car (2008 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon 4 door) but it was cheap and practical. It was around $15,000 after all the tax and license and fees and stuff. So I can sleep at night and not have to eat top ramen every day.

So I need a name for my new car, any suggestions?