For some reason I have always found the idea of a bench seat incredibly romantic. I always imagined I’d be behind the wheel of some old school Ford Pickup truck with some cute girls’ feet on my lap as she lounges out on the bench seat with her hair blowing out through the window as she looked at me. Then with a devilish grin  she’d switch sides and as she whispers in my ear…well i’ll stop the story there, because fast forward a few months and the reality is much different.  I am driving an old school Ford Pickup with a bench seat but, instead of a cute girl leaning up on me, I find my hand bumping my buddies *insert cucumber emoji* every time I need to change into second gear. Granted I still had it better than him because to his right was our other buddy passed out on his shoulder. And with a driver change every couple hundred miles this was the reality for the next 900+ miles. Now that I have this very conspicuous image in your mind, let’s rewind 1 month.

I am in a shady gravel parking lot in some small town outside of Seattle that I have never heard. Meeting me is some person from craigslist in 1980 Ford F-250 that they are selling for $900, but I need to be at the airport in an hour. They show up and after 10 minutes of looking at the truck and with $900 less in my wallet, I find myself driving to the airport hoping they keep their word and hold onto the truck for me until I return with my buddies to drive this thing home. I flew back to Seattle 3 weeks later to pick up the truck. After fully examining it I found that the floor has more holes in it than a rebellious teenagers jeans. The paint is more rust and caked on dirt than the blue it used to be. The exhaust was never hooked up completely and shifting this thing into gear was more of a mutual agreement between you and the truck…and sometimes the truck just wouldn’t agree. The headlights, which are as bright as a distant star, only work half the time and the ride is stiffer than a teenage boy in the hot English teachers class.

However, the truck had 2 major wins…it ran and, most importantly, had working four wheel drive. So, a week after my arrival my two companions and long time buddies flew in and we set off on our 900 mile trip home.

It was an incredible trip. On the first day we drove East of Seattle to meet up with another good friend of ours.