Copy pasta from 2021:
Left at 4am Friday with my friend in my DD with tools chains oil, an overnight bag and an envelope of cash.
Hit Placerville at 6pm to buy a tow truck, meet the guy in town and follow him up. It's a nice truck,
surpip put eyes on it the week before.
Guy says it was a little sluggish starting for him that day, so I'm a little leery of weak batteries, but it fired up just fine.
I buy it, load the DD on it. The plan is to haul ass down the hills, crash at
2big bronco place, drop off some stuff for him, crash on his couch, then haul ass back to Tucson.
Problem is, we drove 895 miles to the international, a half mile before we got there, I spotted a later model ford rollback against a fence, under a tree, behind a bunch of junk, this is interesting.
The roads are narrower, no shoulders, the lots are small. We park the loaded tow truck up the street, walk back to the house. 2 tired looking guys in jackets, no car, knocking on doors in the dark.
She answers, explain the situation, that we came up to buy a truck, and are interested in hers. Ask if she's interested in selling. She is. Her husband died, their business folded, she's moving, it has bad injectors, and it has back fees. She names a price I can't walk away from. She kinda sorta had an agreement with a Mexican who is in Mexico.
"well, I'm here now, and I have cash"
We look the truck over in the dark, it's a no brainer.
2 big is asking me me eta, I'm dealing with telling my ex wife I'll be late picking up kids, crunching can I get this running, can I get this shipped, etc. Do we jam 3hrs to 2 Biggs and sleep, then drive back.
tires on the tow truck are low, lady is looking for the title
I give her a cash deposit.
we find a gas station, top off truck, put "some" air in tires message her back, asking if I can show up early and try to start the truck, that's all good.
we find a less than shitty motel. I drop the stinger to prevent tow truck theft.
no hot water at hotel, dinner from the cooler
we get up early, it's cold, I'm concerned truck won't start cold, it's fine, phew
unload the Toyota in the church parking lot, remove batteries, leave a note and a phone number, take batts to the f650
swap batteries, my buddy is moving all the junk, it needs to be cleared whether we drove it, or hire a transport
spins over really nice, pump up fuel system, give it a tiny bit of ether, she fires up nice, bad fuel knock, I hope, and tons of black smoke under load. PTO kicks on, didn't check functions, drove it out of the hole it was in, but almost clipped the fence with it skidding sideways on wet leaves
It's not drivable, yard, yes, onto a trailer, yes, but not road worthy, and I don't want to burn up a piston
she is having some title issues, father in law died, left it to her husband, then he died, ex mother in law would cause problems, ok. But she gets me a stack of documents, and offers to knock some cash off, since I'm going bonded. Fuck yeah.
I decide to leave these batts in the truck, and buy new batteries for the international. I call O riellys, they have 3, i ask the girl to load test them before I get there, I can hear her roll her eyes. When I get there, she tells me 2 tested bad
. Fuck it, I buy one, and roll out, hook it up single, load Toyota and haul ass.
tires still soft. After 50 miles I find a tire shop, kid isn't real helpful, the valves are hard to get to etc, I had his $10 tip in my pocket, so i went ahead and gave it to him, he got a lot more helpful
she's a dog, hills are not fun. Air seat doesn't work, sits bottomed out. Otherwise a really fucking nice ride.
we skipped 2 Biggs place. The right lane in CA sucks, always hammered by trucks, and just rough AF.
by this time every 10 minutes bill points out the window and says "look! A tow truck for sale" to his great amusement
somewhere around Bakersfield we drop off Shanes car parts with another member
we tried to sleep a couple times, I got a couple hours in the seat of the Toyota
I'll expand on this. We hit some mega truck stop on the west side of LA at 8pm. I set an alarm on my phone for like 2am, climb up into the toyota and crash out. Bill sleeps across the tow truck bench. I wake up, he's throwing rocks at my toyota telling me it's time to go, it's gonna get brought and busy soon, we don't have time to fuck around and need to beat traffic. Because everybody needs to have a retiree bestie who will help you bury a body, and also think it's acceptable to throw rocks at your truck yelling "wake up homo! "
He informs me that he's gotten a full night's sleep, woke up, went to the truck stop and explored and we don't have time to fuck around. Bill is a minimalist. He has all of his belongings in a connex with a slab and an awning next to his girlfriend's house. He doesn't own a car, he doesn't have bills. The only thing in his name is a motorcycle, and the insurance for it. Where I'm going with this, is he doesn't have a phone or a watch and is only been 30 fucking minutes since I went to sleep
It's 830 and he's ready to fucking go. Hell, he's already had a field trip. I guess we'll push on. Got to the east end of LA, found an in n out that was open late, parked, walked in, ate, crashed in the toyota for reals. With strict instructions of who gets to wake up who under what conditions.
Back up and at it
had a cluster Fuck trying to buy diesel in Palm springs at 330am, Station 1 had the doors locked, no cash paying Station 2 pre paid, walked out, see that it's actually biodiesel, I can't deal with a clogged fuel filter, get my refund, driving to station 3, i pull out, into an empty intersection, in a 175hp truck weighing 16k, and the truck a quarter mile away turns on his lights and sirens. Yeah, he's got 450hp, and a siren, and he's honking at me, as if I'm not flooring this thing across the intersection. Keep honking kid. I'll keep flooring it. Station 3, no diesel. Station 4, diesel, not biodiesel, verified. Pre pay. Pump doesn't start. Still doesn't start. Check receipt, wrong pump. Bill is hassling me like a wife. I find the other pump, I'm gonna move the truck vs trying ti straighten this out, Bill still offering his opinion, I'm about to lose my shit. I turn it around. I'm brushing my teeth in the parking lot. I go to spit in the parking lot, then decide to be classy and spit in the trash can instead. At the exact moment that fucking wind power kicks in and i get it all over my pants and boots, it's a rough morning
(Edit, about this time we see fire truck returning to base, false alarm hotshot)
the next stop is on the az side. I find a hotshot rig, guy has a 40' 102 wide low deck, with CA plates, I go introduce myself, he quotes $2 mile, very F'N cool. Now I'm happy again.
At this point I've driven 700 miles, Bill hasn't driven at all. We both kinda agreed to this because of the uninsured ownership status of a commercial truck, that's also making up the majority of my net worth at the moment. We team drove the toyota out there, but he's just shotgun at this point. And enjoying some open containers along the way. So at the 700 mile mark, he's fueling while I'm inside pissing. And for some reason he feels compelled to move the truck away from the pump. And manages to collide with another car, and there's paint on the bumper. But apparently everything with that guy was OK, and there's no issue. I never got the full story of who hit who, but I'm guessing it was an illegal in a work truck with similar insurance situation. 700 miles, no collision. 15 feet. Bill hits something
Get to Bill's, unload DD, pick up my kids, get in the passenger seat, oldest has her permit, win
hot shower, hot dinner, slept like a F'N rock
now I need to decide between driving in and doing injectors, vs transport truck
then I find out the property I'm stalking is going to be listed, I'm trying to get it before market, I made a formal offer today, hopefully it's accepted before it's public, no rest for the wicked
. Getting better all the time
