Ol' Whitie

It's a cold morning as I step outside and walk through the grass. I wrap my coat around me a little tighter and give a shiver. Goodness its cold, too cold for West Texas. The sound of my footsteps on the gravel can be heard as I walk up to the beast.

A half top, single axle trailer is hooked up to it, its white and rust color showing clearly in the moonlight. It has been a good little trailer, it joined the family before the family was established. My husband bought it a few years before we were married and it's been with us ever since. "I could take this trailer places a horse won't go," My husband always says.

Anyways, back to the beast. There's a dent in the driver's side door where another vehicle backed into it leaving a red smear on it. Poor truck didn't do anything to deserve that. All but one hub cap was missing, and a pile of shredded tires sat in the back. A reminder of how tough it actually is. Inside the cab, the dash was shattered yet still in place. It rattled like crazy when you drove it. A "newer," radio had been installed some time back with the new auxiliary plug in so the younger generation could plug in their ipods and listen to music. Blood could still be seen in the cloth on the driver's door from the time my brother cut his thumb off. Over 246,000 miles read on the odometer, "Just barely brook in," my brother would say.

I opened the door and climbed in the front seat, took the truck out of gear, pushed the clutch in and waited for the "wait to start," icon to disappear. I turned the key and the truck shook to life. If it were daylight, a big black cloud of smoke could be seen escaping the exhaust pipe. Because the truck had been straight-piped, it could be heard from a mile away. That's not a joke either, you could hear it from a mile away, especially when your in a low gear.

Another thing about the beast, it needs to idle for at least half an hour before you even think about getting in, especially if you want to be warm while driving. The air conditioner didn't work the best either. It would blow a steady stream of hot air at you all day long; it was just better to roll the window down.

Did ya catch the part about pushing the clutch in the start the beast? Yep, that's right, the beast is a standard, 5 speed to be exact. What, did you think I was just writing about a regular ol' pickup truck? I don't think so! I'm writing about ol' Whitie, the standard pickup truck. It may just be me, but I like driving standard trucks and I live in a place where I can easily, even in town.

I am very proud of the fact that I can drive a standard pickup, its a dying art nowadays. Most vehicles made now are automatics, giving the driver the easiest driving experience possible. Well, I like a challenge.

The first time I ever drove a standard was my freshman year in high school. We still lived in Colorado at the time and the truck was my dads work truck; a red Ford. It was a gaser (gasoline,) and supposedly easy to drive. I was all gung ho and talked big when I first asked to drive it, but when you get behind the wheel and see that there are three pedals instead of two, my confidence quickly drained. I was committed though and had to do it now. It wasn't so bad on the dirt roads, but those three miles quickly ran out and my dad said "I need to go to town so you keep driving." By this time, I had only experienced gears one, two, and three. It was time was the last two.

Well, to make a long story short, I got us to town safely, and made my dad drive us home. I continued to drive his work truck from time to time and was doing pretty good. Then things changed and we moved to Texas and I hadn't driven a standard in years, until my first year of marriage.

This time it was a Chevy gaser and I had to relearn how to drive it all over again. Well, that's a little exaggerated, I didn't get that "oh no there's three pedals," feeling this time. What did make it hard though was the seat didn't adjust, it was broken and it fit my husband's long legs perfectly. Not mine. Luckily I didn't have to drive it as much.

Then when we moved into to town following the good Lord's plan and my dad bought us a day-working rig. He said it was for his kids, my husband included, as long as he got to drive it too. The rig happened to be Ol' Whitie: A 2002 Dodge 2500 with a 24 valve cummins engine in it. At first I didn't want to drive it. It was loud, too loud, and and every time you hit third gear a stream of black smoke poured out behind you.

Oh but then, I was set up. We went on a trip to North Texas helping my in-laws move and we took Ol' Whitie because we would be pulling a trailer. Our truck at the time was a, can you guess, a gaser and got terrible fuel mileage without pulling a trailer, plus we had just sold it.

We got a load hauled for the in-laws and the next day we would travel home, or so I thought. I didn't know this, but my husband had been "truck searching," and had a truck he wanted to go look at, that was 30 miles in the wrong direction. "Alright," I said and we ended up buying a truck, a diesel this time. Now we had two trucks to drive home and my husband wanted to drive the new truck. I said I would as long as he took our son, our 9 month old son. Yeah, that didn't happen. I ended up driving the beast and having the pleasure of riding with my son.

After 500 miles you could say I was pretty dang good at driving that truck. When I got in to drive our new automatic diesel, I was pushing an invisible clutch and looking for the shift stick.

Every chance I get I drive Ol' Whitie, or "the white truck." Even if it is running errands for my dad around town. He talks about selling it and if we could I would buy it. But then he laughs and says he's joking. Ok, I'm not that attached, but I do feel like a cool ranchin' momma when I drive it.

Motivation

I need some motivation, not only to write this book that I've talked up, but also to do the many chores that need doing around here. The wind is blowing though, and it has a nippy little bite to it which doesn't help. I'm supposed to be working on my soon to be chicken coop but again, the wind...

Since I've opened this blog, I haven't had a single idea as to where to start. I'm hoping that as the year progresses and spring works roll around that I will have much to write about. I was told that I could help a day or two during the works, which makes me so excited! At the last place we lived, the boss had this thing against women and they weren't allowed to do anything... I was afraid to go out in my yard and water while they were over at our house. Woman-haters.

Anyways. I will have something to write about after this weekend. It's the first WRRA rodeo of the season, and it's in Alpine! I have a different team this year so I'm hoping will do good, and have fun!
So after this weekend I'm going to make a point to start writing my book! Wish me luck!

Here we go!

Alright ya'll... I said I was going to do and do I shall!!
This blog will serve as my guideline to my book that I want to write. Everything in it will be posted as if it were in the book, and when I have enough posts I'll see about making it into an actual book. I don't know where to start or even how to go about publishing a book, but I'm bound and determined to make it happen!! I'll have to first little part along shortly.
Thanks for the support!