Less than 24 hours to go

So here I am..24 hours later. My mood is slightly more melancholy than this time last night. I think I was just in shock last night. Well, the shock is over and I'm now faced with the sad reality that I'm parting with my 1999 Tacoma tomorrow evening after work.

I left work early so that I could come home and make some necessary changes to the truck before tomorrow's trade-in. Things like replacing the custom corner lights and tail lights with their factory counterparts, removing all of my custom stereo equipment and installing a Toyota tape deck from out of Jennifer's old car - a 1998 Camry. (By the way, it worked WONDERFULLY. Sounded pretty good, too!) I removed the rubber bed mat that I'll cut down to size and install in the third truck that it will have "lived" in. I removed the short shifter kit and installed all of the original factory equipment, including the shift knob. I switched out the wheels with my factory "steelies" with the brand new snow tires from Jennifer.

And then I stood back and looked at it. It really was one of those moments when a million memories from over the past 4 years came rushing back through my head. From picking the truck up off the lot on that fine day in May 1999 to installing the lowering kit in June of 2001, to installing the cold air intake in the dark with Olivia's help, and so on and so forth. Damn, I can't even type this without getting teary-eyed thinking about all of the great memories I've had with that truck.

And so I was driving home from work this afternoon and as I turned the corner onto Hunton Park Boulevard, I realized that I would never have the chance to ride through the parking lot at any local strip mall and admire my clean, lowered Taco in the reflection of all of the store windows. And I so wanted to turn the truck around and drive to the closest strip mall so that I could enjoy that satisfaction one last time. But alas, I had a ton of work to do and not much time to do it.

I pulled into my parking space here at the house and sat and listened to my stereo for a few minutes. With the double cab not having much "extra" room for subwoofers, I wasn't sure how long it would be before I'd be able to rattle my brain with Linkin Park again.

So I got all of the stuff done to the truck that needed to be done. And, after a quick trip over to Charlottesville to meet Mom for some Double Cab paper signing, we returned home to finish up the work on the truck.

Taking it out for a test-drive felt really weird. With the factory shifter and knob and a factory Toyota head unit, I was taken back to May 1999 again. A quick trip down Hunton Park Boulevard, U-turn and then a quick little final burnout. I had to do it. I tached it up to 4 or 5k, dumped the clutch, and then just let em' eat for a few yards up the road. I finally gave in and shifted to second and continued up the road to complete the 1/4" mile drag strip run that I never got to experience with this truck. So many unexplored dreams.

One day I will come back to this - the life of driving a lowered mini truck. But not now. And not that many others that read this understand, but I'll continue to be a mini trucker at heart.

Posted by Jeff at May 2, 2003 2:30 AM