It has been too long. LIFE. It sometimes gets in the way of the things one enjoys most. Pondering Hiker is not going away, simply expanding. I have begun putting together a vehicle that will allow me to further the hiking adventures and at the same same offer a level of comfort from which to launch from.
At the beginning of 2020, before the pandemic struck, I decided to sell my full sized, Chevrolet, Silverado. The plan was to buy a four-wheeled drive, Toyota, Tacoma. I had done my research, deciding on what I wanted in a new truck and which one offered all of those things. I looked at the Jeep Gladiator, Ford Ranger and the Chevrolet Colorado.
I placed an ad to sell my Silverado and within 20 minutes, I had 27 e-mails from people wanting more information. The first one was from a young man in Anaheim, California. He provided a telephone number in his e-mail so I called him. He asked the basic questions and then asked if I could hold for a second. I heard him talking to someone in the background and he came back and said he and he father would like to come look at the truck. He said he was in Anaheim and would be leaving right away. He asked if I would talk to his father. I talked to his father and he explained he was a service manager for a Chevrolet Dealer and after looking at the pictures I had posted and listening to my description of the vehicle he said they were very interested and would I agree to allow them to at least have first shot at the truck and not sell it while they were driving down. I agreed. They arrived within a couple of hours, test drove the truck and without any haggling, bought the truck for what I was asking.
So now, it was time to contact a dealer and find the Tacoma I wanted. I had built the truck on the Toyota site and printed it out. I had no idea what I was in for. I contacted three dealers her in San Diego. Their inventory for Tacomas was limited. One of the dealers, Frank Toyota in National City, offered to search inventories and see if he could locate a truck meeting my requirements. My first contact with dealers was mid April , 2020. In May of 2020, with Covid in full swing, Toyota stopped their manufacturing of new vehicles. Dealers were limited to “Stock on Hand”. Tacomas were in very short supply and the majority of those available were base models, lacking the features I was seeking. As snobbish as this sounds, I told the dealer my Tacoma purchase was a “desire” not a “need” thus I was not willing to settle. So, I waited.
While I waited, I had been searching inventories across the nation. I would find a truck in Texas that had what I wanted and would call. The dealer would say the truck was in their inventory and would send me their price. Every dealer I made contact with had marked their trucks up $2,000-3,500 OVER - MSRP. One of the dealers said, “Hey, this isn’t Wal Mart. We have a truck everyone wants and we need to make money”. It doesn’t need to be said, but I didn’t hold my tongue with my reply.
In July, the dealer contacted me and said they had located a Tacoma they believed had all the features I wanted. They sent me the spec sheet. The truck had everything I wanted and more. I asked what the cost of the truck would be, knowing what the sticker indicated. Within and hour the dealer sent me the price of the truck, which was $2,750 UNDER - MSRP. I said I would take it. They made arrangements to have the truck shipped to them and said it would take 3-6 weeks to arrive.
Three weeks later, to the day, I got a call the truck had arrived. The next day I drove to the dealer and took delivery of a 2020 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off Road 4X4. The truck has all the bells and whistles. I brought it home and began the plans for turning the truck into an “Over-landing” vehicle. I installed a sturdy tonneau cover (Diamond Back) and ordered a roof top tent. Ordered a set of roof racks to place on the tonneau cover to mount the tent onto. I then installed a GMRS radio and a dash cam. I then purchased recovery gear for off-roading and the camping gear I needed for off-road camping and travel.
With the pandemic still hampering travel, I have only made one trip in my truck. I headed up to the eastern Sierra to do some camping and fishing. Of all the campgrounds in the eastern Sierra, from Independence to Bridgeport, only three were open. There were a handful of campers in these campgrounds and even fewer hiking or fishing. It was something I had never seen.
I am hoping to hit the road after the first of the year and explore Death Valley, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, taking the backroads, fire roads and 4X4 roads, into the wilderness. There are many out of the way places I hope to explore.
As I begin these travels, I hope to journal my experiences, vlog the travels and offer insight into my pondering as I go. I will take as many pictures as I can, video those experiences a picture won’t completely convey and write the words I don’t capture in the pictures and videos.
