It was August of 2006 and I was home sick from work the day the truck came into my life. My husband had gone to take his ’97 Toyota truck into the dealership to have it serviced. I was sleeping when the phone rang. It was my husband calling from the dealership to tell me that someone would be calling from there and to help work a ‘deal.’

A deal??? What deal??!!

It turns out, he was negotiating the purchase of a new truck. Well, not completely new. It was a couple years old, with great mileage and in beautiful shape. Well, I wasn’t much help with negotiating a good deal but, sure enough, he came home with this ‘new’ truck.

I was dubious about it at first. I really didn’t think we needed a new truck but my husband had fallen in love with this one and I could see why! It was a 2004 Toyota Tacoma, all white and so handsomely proud looking in stature!

It had a unique sound to it when it pulled up in the driveway and in no time, the truck also grew on me! So stylish! So capable looking! We named it the White Steed.

Well, the White Steed has been my savior during snow storms when I couldn’t get around in my own car! We traveled to Oregon, Idaho, Eastern Washington and made several trips to the Olympic Peninsula with it.

This truck fast became our fishing buddy!

 

 

We picked many black berries using this truck. We pulled our boat with the truck to fish and crab. The White Steed had become an integral member of our family. We took great care of this truck and proudly rode in it.

The 2004 Tacoma is still a coveted year for that model. They tend to hold their value more than any other year or model of Toyota trucks.

Then, on February 10th 2019, during a break in the wave of crazy snow storms we’d been having, we drove our truck into town for a couple things and to get out. Snowmaggedon had left us shut in for a few days and we had cabin fever.

We slowly navigated into town safely without any problem. We’d driven the White Steed in snow many times! It always got to places where other vehicles couldn’t, like up the steep hill to get to our home.

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On the way back, I was shooting pictures of the snowy roads and my husband was at the wheel, driving maybe 25 mile per hour, when suddenly it was as if an invisible hand lifted the back end of the truck, sending it sliding sideways. Helplessly, we both braced for impact and I shouted, “No! No! No!” over and over.

The truck came to an abrupt, crashing stop up against a huge basalt boulder someone had placed at the entrance to their driveway. The truck was sideways, up against this rock on the passenger side door. On impact, my camera was knocked out of my hand and landed on the backseat floor behind the driver seat. It lay growling, trying to retract its lens but unable to.

It was me, the caved in door and that boulder. We’d hit hard!!!

I looked down at my right arm and saw two huge monkey bumps rise up from my flesh. I flexed my arm and hand. Thankfully, nothing was broken but my forearm was badly bruised and my camera broken.

Our truck was now broken, too.

My husband immediately started the White Steed with no problem and we drove home, grateful nobody else had been involved in this accident.

Just us.

We hit the ONLY un-sanded patch of ice on that road that would spin us off into the ONLY boulder on that road. There were plenty of fields and ditches, but did we slide into any of them?

No.

Just that ONE boulder.

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Well, we immediately filed a claim with our insurance carrier and when the roads had adequately cleared, we took our White Steed to the local collision experts to have an estimate of repair done.

The bottom line is that the insurance company deemed White Steed a total loss.

The collision experts told us that the cab would need to be completely replaced which would mean there would be an issue with mismatched VINs.

So, with deep sadness, my husband surrendered the White Steed.

It was gut wrenching to see the tow truck haul White Steed away.

This post memorializes the deep gratitude we have for such a handsome and great truck! I’ve never felt so deeply saddened by the loss of a vehicle until now. I did not realize HOW MUCH that truck meant to me! It’s almost like losing a family member! Hence, this post.

To many folks, my emotions about this may seem silly. Even to me, it is, but, surprisingly, this is what I feel!

I’ll get over it, for sure, and we’ll buy another vehicle that can tow our boat, take us fishing and crabbing and go on many adventures with.

However, I’ll still miss the White Steed…..