Farewell

The above truck has been in Rich's family for a long time. Rich's dad bought it new in 1992, and the Nelson family has treasured it since. Notice the lack of rear-view mirror on its right-hand side? This feature earned it the name Vincent Van Gogh, Vince for short. Rich was lucky enough for it to become his truck, which then meant it became ours when we got married. It's hard to say what was so special about Vince. He was a great little runaround truck, and Rich always said that he was just fun to drive. (I've only driven him once since I'm a little afraid to drive a stick shift, but even that little drive was fun for me.)

But now, Vince has taken his last truck breath. While driving home one day, Vince blew a head gasket coming up our hill. It seems 5 Mile Road was just too much hill for him in the end. As much as we'd like to keep Vince going until Norah can drive him, it's just not practical to put $1500 into him and wait for something else to break down in the only too near future.

This was the truck that Rich and I dated in. He took us on our first not-really-a-date to play catch. He took us to our first real date, dinner and the driving range. He took us to Ogden for Rich to meet my family the first time. He took us to the park where Rich proposed. (He, however, did not drive us on our wedding day - Vince wasn't exactly made for snow.)

Vince makes me think of summers in Provo after we were married, when it's just fun to be there because most of the students are gone and the city is quiet and beautiful. Vince was our vehicle of choice for Provo summers. Now, when I think of Vince, I'll always remember driving down the peaceful Provo streets on a warm summer evening.

I guess this is goodbye, old friend. I hate to see you go. You had a good run, and the Nelsons will treasure all 236,686 of your miles.

(Think this post is a little over-the-top for a truck? Obviously, you never knew Vince.)