Driving Way Off of Memory Lane

Glenn linked yesterday to this Popular Mechanics listicle on their 51 favorite trucks, and I finally got a chance to click through — and stopped cold on the International Harvester Scout II. At the age of 14, this was the first vehicle I learned to drive, a 1975-vintage beast in ’70s orange to help hide the rust. Took that thing up and down the hills of southern Missouri, up dry creek beds, across totally wet creeks — everywhere. In any weather. It would be another three years before I learned to drive on paved roads.

An absolute beast of a machine. All it needed to keep going was a lot of gas and even more oil. Yeah, they were right to name it one of the 51 greatest trucks ever.