new pickup

When our time here in Montana is up (namely, at the end of September), we are embarking upon a cross-country journey with Jason's mom, Barbara, and her cousin, Karen. The four of us will be taking roughly 3 weeks to get from here to the east coast, via the route of the west coast (Washington, Oregon, and California) and then Arizona and Colorado, Indiana, etc. until we get to where we're going. Jason and I then plan to spend a few months out there catching up with his side of the family and exploring that neck o' the American woods, living in a camper.


I say all of that to preface the fact that we've been looking for a crew-cab pickup and camper to make the trip with. So craigslist, ebay, the mountaintrader, and the newspaper have been our best friends these days, or at least the friends with whom we spend the most time. Jason found a pickup that met all our criteria on craigslist a couple weekends ago, so we scurried over to Portland and bought it. Sort of bought. It was the weirdest transaction; long story short, we ended up driving it home without the title and without paying the guy all the money, because of how he has got it financed. Talk about trust on both sides. But he and his wife are fair-trade coffee roasters, have like 5 little tow-headed children, went to the same college I did in Portland, and know some people we do from Whitefish. So it's all being worked out; no worries.


This thing is bright and shiny red, a freaking crew cab, longbed pickup. The only way it feels remotely like "us" is that it is a Diesel, so it gets decent mileage. Driving down Hawthorne Street in Portland after we bought it was an experience. We got the glare, man. We were the enemy of all progressives for driving such a beast. It messed with our psyches. We had to keep reminding ourselves that this is our home and transportation all in one, and it's not for forever. I don't even have a picture of it yet, save for inadvertently catching it in the background of this shot of a grasshopper, but I'm kind of glad:



Now we're on the lookout for a camper.