Friday, April 4, 2008

About Roozer (It's a Truck)

Before I adopted Jackson I asked around about how I might possibly transport two Greyhounds in my VW Passat. Everyone said the same thing..."It's no problem!" I heard about the lady who toted three hounds in her Honda Civic. I heard about the two in the Mini Cooper. And on and on.

Apparently transportation wasn't going to be an obstacle, so I decided to adopt Jackson. And hauling Harvey and Jackson in the Passat was fine... for a while.

You've heard (and maybe were one) about young siblings traveling in cars. You know, "Mom, he's looking at me!", "Mom, he's touching me!", or "Mom, he's on my side of the seat!" That's exactly how it was with Jackson and Harvey. Having those two in the car was like transporting a small circus.

Enter Roozer, my 1983 Toyota Land Cruiser.


Harvey and Jackson gave me an excuse to buy something I always wanted, and before them, I could never justify the purchase. But hey, I needed something for the hounds, and for all of those bags of mulch, right?

I found the truck via Craig's List. Turns out, the owner lived close by. The truck was in great shape, ran ok, and had lots of room for the boys. When I took the boys for a "test drive", they jumped right in, which if funny, because Jackson would never get in the Passat on his own.

Harvey and Jackson love that truck. One day, Jackson tried to jump in the truck before I lowered the gate and was left dangling by his armpit.

Here's the thing about Roozer. It has a crazy bumper. The story is that the truck belonged to a Texas cattle rancher. He had a run-in with a steer that resulted in a missing bumper. He replaced it with a homemade bumper with a horseshoe embellishment. That bumper is cool. Who cares if it weighs a few hundred pounds?


Right now my beautiful truck is sitting in one of the bays at Iron Pig. I gave the guys at Iron Pig a laundry list of things to check/fix, including the wipers that gave out while I was driving down I95 during a rainstorm. And the bumper? I hated to do it, but with gas prices the way they are, the bumper's getting replaced by an ARB bumper (it'll look like this). I have mixed feelings my decision, and will really miss that horseshoe.

I hope the guys at Iron Pig finish soon. Harvey and Jackson have places to go, and driving them in the Passat is like driving a couple of six year olds to Disneyworld. From Virginia.

Roozer, we miss you. Please come home soon.

2 comments:

Peanut said...

oh we hope roozer does come home soon.

genji said...

That is one cool Cruiser. I've always wanted one too. I hear they ride like a washboard, but they look so cool. Now you need to get more greys to fill all the open space :)