Matthew has had his truck for many years so replacing it was a
bitter-sweet moment for us. I know his memories go back a lot further than
mine do as he bought the truck for his step-father and then bought it off him a
few years later when his health started declining.
The teal F-150 will forever be ingrained in my memory. I can still remember Matthew driving up to my
sister’s house in his truck the first day we reconnected after 17 years. I was a ball of nerves not knowing what to
expect and 10 months later we were married.
We used the truck for many camping trips, whether it be tent camping or
pulling the pop-up trailer. Matthew
taught Shane how to drive using the truck on our yearly camping trips. Of course, there was also the family camping
trip where it broke down and my parents had to come back and tow us home with
their GMC. We ended up replacing the motor
on the truck twice… once because we loaned it out to a friend and they ruined
the brand-new motor. Matthew is one of
the most generous guys I know and that didn’t stop him from allowing others to
use his truck whenever they needed it. We
used the truck to pack up our house in a weekend and move back home with my
parents (where we planned to stay for only a couple months but now we are taking
care of their house while they are traveling the USA enjoying retirement). We ended up buying a canopy for the truck and
using it to transfer luggage on youth activities. For a year it sat practically unused when
Matthew was unable to drive. Of course,
it got a lot of use in the winter whenever it snowed.
Ready for camping... yes we brought our grill from the house..!
Shane learning to drive...
Another summer.... another driving lesson...
Our new truck pulling our old truck...
Loaded up for our move...
Handled great in the snow...
So, when it once again broke down, Matthew decided it wasn’t worth
putting more money into fixing it. It
took him months to fix the brakes when they needed to be replaced and it is harder
for him to repairs on the truck so keeping an older truck that is going to need
upkeep wasn’t in our best interest. We started
looking around to buy a small car with better gas mileage, although Matthew
really wanted to get a truck. We looked online
for a couple hours and found a couple that looked like they were decent cars
for the price and mileage. Before we
settled on a car my parents offered to give us their truck. Of course we jumped at the deal. Matthew has always said he would buy their
truck if they ever wanted to sell it. It
may not be brand new, but it is 2001 GMC with only 70,000 miles and in
excellent condition inside and out.
Our new/old truck - 2001 GMC
Look how nice they look together...!
Of course, the first thing we did was to find a canopy to put on
the truck. Matthew needs a way to keep
his wheelchair dry and it would be too much of a hassle to put it up
front. He was able to find a custom canopy
that matched the truck perfectly and talk them down in price. Although we’ll miss the old truck, I am
excited about the memories we are going to make in the new truck. God always seems to provide for our needs at
just the right moment.
Canopy looks like it was made for our truck...
Perfect for storing the wheelchair...!
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