I did some googling of driveaway services and have requested an application from one which will come by mail. You pay a deposit of $350.00 when you pick up a vehicle to be delivered and get it back when you arrive at your destination, paying for your won gas along the way. So you wait for a vehicle needing delivery to where you want to go or somewhere along the way and hope you are the driver they pick, kind of a hurry up and wait. So there's that and I will investigate to see if there is another such outfit in the Baltimore Washington area.
I am not done investigating a truck however since in the end I need a truck no matter how I get home and there are not going to be a bunch more funds available once I get there. So, I have been arm wrestling myself over that 1971 Chevy pickup since it was the only one in my budget range I had heard back from. I have photos now and a better idea of what is right and what is wrong with it. The seller seems to be a pretty upfront guy and is a fireman with some empathy for what I've just been through. He had bought the truck from a farmer with the intention of restoring it, the economy fell into the basement and the truck did not get restored. I'm not real familiar with chevys, but I like it and can see myself looking dashing as all get out behind the wheel and Aaniimoosh grinning out the shotgun window. It is even a good turquoise Indian color and with a nice Indian saddle blanket on the seat could be the ultimate reservation cruiser even down to the rust and decorative cracked windshield. I could fit in on any reservation in America and that's a fact! However, it is an obvious money pit and a project just getting it on the road, then spending my summer trying to make it whole. If I have a project I want it to be one with two wheels I don't have to lie under to work on. I have spent enough time through the years lying on by back under a truck getting rust and old grease in my eyes. If I have to I will, but I don't think I have to.
After I started this post earlier today I got an email from the Jeep Cherokee guy who says I was the first to respond to the listing and he was intrigued I think with the Cherokee prayer and Indian connection or maybe just wants to see this old guy Silverbear whose truck burned up. I had told him in my email I thought this was my truck and why it wanted me to buy it. Yes, it is strange and not your usual way of doing things, but he has put other people off until I see it as he knows I'm in a bind, so that is nice of him. I've made arrangements to borrow a car tomorrow for the thirty mile trip to look it over and perhaps make a deposit. So wish me luck and good judgment tomorrow at high noon when the jeep and I look into each other's headlights for the first time to see if there is indeed a love connection. I will ask the dog her opinion as well. She isn't much for mechanics, but will know if the seat smells funny or if there is a tootsie roll in the glove box. All things considered... G'night... (below are two photos of the 71 turquoise reservation cruiser and two of the red 87 Cherokee)
SB