San Diego Reader

I was responsible. I had a perfectly nice 2000 Nissan Xterra. Airbags, AC, backseat for the boy. Almost new tires, nice paint. It even had a Sony stereo that played MP3s.

No way could I keep it. My 52 Styleline was off the road and I couldn't stand it!

The Nissan was far too pedestrian... and reliable. No fun there!

Craiglist and a month of trying and goodbye to the Xterra. Way less than I wanted, but now I could start looking for an old pickup. I was looking for a 60 to 66 Chevrolet C10, but I was striking out.

Then I found it. The 1959 Chevrolet Apache 1/2 ton Stepside Pickup. It had the spare mounted over the driver side rear fender and everything.

He wanted $500 too much (actually $1500 too much, we had planned on putting some of the $$ from the sale of the Xterra into the bank and into the '52). I offered the guy a painting that I had just done to sweeten the deal.

wait... wait..

A week and a half later I was on my way to LA to checkout the truck...

And a week after that it was on it's way to the shop for a thousand dollar brakejob. (bearings, hoses, drums turned, shoes, wheel cylinders, master cylinder)

still smiling, though.

• Joe