Bye sweet Mazda...

It drives my wife crazy,

cause I live my life without a plan,

however there is a framework or outline,

the details get filled in as time goes by.

One of the bullet points during this PDX adventure,

was to find a cheap truck,

something that would lessen the wear and tear

on our 1 ton van,

and could be passed down to Jaxon or Jakob.

I wrote earlier how this was the screamin $300 deal,

and even with used tires and various parts,

the price didn't break the $500 mark.

We had some good times,

at least 800 miles of them!

The van woulda been ran down 

learning the streets of Portland,

not to mention the Mazda was a gas sipper.

We got through the snow weeks,

much more fun than driving the van,

which could get unruly with the extra weight.

The little truck drove great with chains.

Most of those miles were due to craigslist scrounging,

one of the best ways to learn a city.

There are some great places hidden in town.

It'll be more fun when the family is up!

Behind the scenes,

we were heading to a deadline.

While it was a bulletproof rig,

there were some annoying issues.

It loved to dribble oil,

leaving its mark like it was an old Harley or hot rod.

I changed the crank pulley seal,

and even changed the oil pan gasket.

Even then there was a random leak.

Besides that,

it wasn't the cleanest running engine.

The original 2000cc was swapped for a 2200cc,

and had clues of a tweaker or beginner mechanic.

Gobs of RTV, 

half the exhaust was missing,

a bad driveshaft carrier bearing,

and a mystery scraping sound.

The registration was up in April,

and the goal was to either pass smog/deq,

or send it down the road.

Well I didn't mean that literally.

Every trip to SD,

I'd leave it in this spot,

across from the Max/trolley stop.

After the 4th time,

I musta got too comfortable.

The truck was gone!!

Well what did I expect.

The spot is across from a bar and mechanic shop,

on the main drag that goes through town.

Holey... Chit.

Fortunately I had the hot rod!

Good ole reliable got me to work that week...

More later!

TP