I've been meaning to post this thread for years, but time has a way of getting away from you when you're having a good time. With the truck finally going under the knife with Trail Tailor, I figured it would be a good time to share this story.
That's Sadie. I found her on the side of highway 160 in the Navajo Nation, back when I was driving an FJ40. Picked her up and she's been the best dog anyone could ever ask for. The 40 wasn't the most comfortable ride, but it more or less got the job done and we had some pretty epic road trips in the truck even if it left us stranded from time to time.
I never saw it coming but I met someone who was one of a kind and for the first time I started thinking about settling down. First priority was to come up with some money for a ring. The 40 was the nicest thing I owned, and it had increased a lot in value since I bought it. In fact it had more than doubled and it would bring enough to buy a really, really nice ring. I felt like the ring was a do it once and do it right kind of thing, so I put the 40 on craigslist and the very next week it was gone. I still miss the 40, but it was all for the best and I would do it all over again if I had to.
Fast forward a couple years and we were engaged (the ring did the trick), doing some medical work in Cambodia. We were getting tired of living out of suitcases and figured it was time to go home to the states soon. Only problem was that I had nothing to drive when we got home, so I found myself cruising ih8mud and ebay. I knew that the 40 wasnt the best daily driver, and with a soon to be wife and maybe some kids down the road it would be kind of nice to have something more modern.
It wasn't even a week after I started looking that i saw this beautiful FJ60 on eBay. It had spent most of its life in New Mexico, looked to be in great shape with no rust, and was clearly well loved by its owner. I kind of hemmed and hawed, and before I got the nerve to bid on it the auction ended and it had slipped away. I kicked myself for a week, until it popped up again on eBay. I wasn't going to let it get away this time, so I stayed up until the middle of the night in Cambodia waiting to place a last minute bid, and for the grand sum of $11,000 and change I won the auction.
The only problem was that I was approximately 8833 miles away from the truck, had no flights booked to go home, and wasn't too excited about wiring $11,000 to a complete stranger for a truck I had never seen. I offered to place a deposit and pay the rest when I got back to the US, but the seller was adamant that I either wired the money in full or it was getting relisted. I just couldn't let the truck get away (again), so I took a leap of faith and wired the full amount to the seller, praying that I would actually receive a truck which looked vaguely like the one pictured in the eBay listing when I made it back stateside. It was a long month of waiting and wondering if I had made a huge mistake...
That's Sadie. I found her on the side of highway 160 in the Navajo Nation, back when I was driving an FJ40. Picked her up and she's been the best dog anyone could ever ask for. The 40 wasn't the most comfortable ride, but it more or less got the job done and we had some pretty epic road trips in the truck even if it left us stranded from time to time.
I never saw it coming but I met someone who was one of a kind and for the first time I started thinking about settling down. First priority was to come up with some money for a ring. The 40 was the nicest thing I owned, and it had increased a lot in value since I bought it. In fact it had more than doubled and it would bring enough to buy a really, really nice ring. I felt like the ring was a do it once and do it right kind of thing, so I put the 40 on craigslist and the very next week it was gone. I still miss the 40, but it was all for the best and I would do it all over again if I had to.
Fast forward a couple years and we were engaged (the ring did the trick), doing some medical work in Cambodia. We were getting tired of living out of suitcases and figured it was time to go home to the states soon. Only problem was that I had nothing to drive when we got home, so I found myself cruising ih8mud and ebay. I knew that the 40 wasnt the best daily driver, and with a soon to be wife and maybe some kids down the road it would be kind of nice to have something more modern.
It wasn't even a week after I started looking that i saw this beautiful FJ60 on eBay. It had spent most of its life in New Mexico, looked to be in great shape with no rust, and was clearly well loved by its owner. I kind of hemmed and hawed, and before I got the nerve to bid on it the auction ended and it had slipped away. I kicked myself for a week, until it popped up again on eBay. I wasn't going to let it get away this time, so I stayed up until the middle of the night in Cambodia waiting to place a last minute bid, and for the grand sum of $11,000 and change I won the auction.
The only problem was that I was approximately 8833 miles away from the truck, had no flights booked to go home, and wasn't too excited about wiring $11,000 to a complete stranger for a truck I had never seen. I offered to place a deposit and pay the rest when I got back to the US, but the seller was adamant that I either wired the money in full or it was getting relisted. I just couldn't let the truck get away (again), so I took a leap of faith and wired the full amount to the seller, praying that I would actually receive a truck which looked vaguely like the one pictured in the eBay listing when I made it back stateside. It was a long month of waiting and wondering if I had made a huge mistake...