Irony: Burning Them to Visit Their Fossils

My original goal for the truck was to have it last ten years. I figured that $US 1,000 per year was a reasonable cost for transportation eqipment. Well, 2006 has come and gone and I'm still lumbering around in my Ford Ranger. I have enough cash on hand to go and buy any new, replacement vehicle that I want. Yet, I cannot justify the expense as, at the moment, my truck has a measly 79,000 miles on it. Although it would be nice to have that fleeting new car smell, it simply doesn't seem necessary at this time.

The truck used to travel. In 2001, Jay and I took a seven-week, camping road trip. We left Vancouver and didn't turn around until after hitting Cape Spear, Newfoundland. In the past few years, we've not taken any substantial road trips. I like the feeling when pushing out in the morning with at least 400 miles of tar to cover. Maybe we can take several weeks this summer just to slide up the Canadian Rockies and visit Northern British Columbia. We could easily travel 3,000 miles and hardly leave our own province.

On the 2001 cross-Canadia trip, I'm standing helpless 'neath a menacing dinosaur in Drumheller, Alberta. It's in the Canadian badlands and is considered the dinosaur capital of the world.