Next Sunday, God willing and Godzilla waiting, I’ll be out camping one last time with Big Red. It will be sad to know it’s the last time, but I did a walk around under Red and cancer is worse then I think even the shop reported when they failed Red.
I was exploring under the truck and noticing that the cross member holding up the gas tank ⛽ and shock absorber is also pretty rotted out and at some point probably not far in the future will snap, so I have to be careful on how hard I hit bumps in the next week. I am going to put the hub caps back on today, I was pondering if I could put the 35s and Rockstars on the stock Godzilla truck if that’s what I end up getting. I think the Rockstars support 8-lug wheels. Not sure about the wheel off-set on F-250. I still have a fair bit of life left on those BFG 35s. ⚪ Might be cool but I’m not sure what I would put Red on before scrapping. Jack stands maybe? But how to get him towed away for scrap without wheels? I could I guess ask around – if I scrap rather then sell I could probably ask for the wheels and tires back as part of the deal.
Truth is I already have visions of a Bigger Red truck, fuck the EPA and woke greenies, in my head. 🛻 I was reading about how good and reliable those mini-Godzilla engines really are even if a few have had lifter failures, they’re better then most of small-block crap using thin oil and displacement on demand the EPA is forcing on people. But I figure enjoy the remaining days with Red before it’s done and I have a few months without a vehicle. 🔥 🏕️ But first a good weekend in wilderness next week, with some fires and grass. See, breathing in all that plastic smoke, following cow-pokes and hillbilly goat farmers from wilds of West Virigina on the internet, 🐮 and the Trumpster has completely trashed my mind. But I do love the lands of the hills and hollers with their wood smoke and cow shit far away from the cities. 🌲🐐 ⛰️ 🌲🔥
Today, it’s a ride on my mountain bike bright and early to Voorheeesville I think, 🚲 then come home, shower, put the hub caps back on Red and drive out to Mom and Dad’s. Then I am going with them in their Woke-Mobile to see my neice preform in the Nutcracker, drive around to see the holiday lights, 🎅 then head back home. Then it’s a two day work week at work, I’ll probably my bike ride in, as I just don’t want to push my luck with Big Red as I still want to get out camping one last time before Red is retired. Tuesday if it’s crap, I guess the city buses are good, more time to read and get my steps in walking into the Plaza 👣 as I as sing along with Ian Tyson with my mentally ill delusions of Godzilla 🐲 n my head as I get yelled at by the homeless bums sleeping in the Concourse.
While I haven't figured out the labels and the exact design of these 3D video maps they might be the future of how once could share the hiking experience.
I tell myself I will look seriously at Toyota Tacomas, as they are sensible vehicle for me to buy especially with an off-road package. Small, fuel efficent, easy to drive. It would be a good truck, especially if some day I’m forced out of my apartment and have to commute to work. You know fight traffic, gas up every week, stop lights, getting raped and sexually abused regularly by the cops, etc. 2 miles over the speed limit? Unbuckle your paints, Sir! The things that give every suburbanite a real boner as they take their SUV everywhere, including to the doughnut shop next door. True, I do live in suburbs but I bike or ride to work and to stores. I want to have goats, live in hills and burn my own fucking garbage when I have land. Yes, I don’t mind smell of manure, some horny buck goat, or a little burnt plastic. Growing and butchering beats buying everything in plastic and paying for landfill dumping in endangered species habitats and fake recycling.
Of course, I’ve already made up my mind, and will now do everything in power to reinforce my decision to buy a red F-250 XL regular cab long bed 4×4. Let’s be honest, I like big burly trucks, and I can not lie. And I’ll make up every excuse in the book to support that conclusion. The Toyota Tacomas are said to get really bad gas milage for their size, often in the real world drinking as much fuel as a full-size truck, as nobody feathers the gas peddle or drives on flat roads quite the like EPA does.
And the Tacomas play the EPA game of using a one-and-a-half soda bottles, then turbo-charging and ramming as much fuel and air as possible into those pissy little cylinders to get as much power out of engine while climbing or stomping on gas – all while testing and trashing all the internal components of the engine. It saves fuel in testing, but in reality when people drive, not so much. Then you have the auto-start stop, which repeatly subjects the engine to bearing stress and under lubrication, by shutting off the engine at every stop light and then turning it back over without lubrication when you take your foot of the gas. Hell of it is I don’t like using the foot brake at red lights, I’d much rather use the E-Brake to hold it still as I’m lazy. And then all passenger vehicles now are using OW-20 thin as water motor oil for lubrication, which provides for even more engine wear.
Truth is I really like how old fashioned the technology – relatively speaking for 2026 – in the F-250s with the manual hubs, floor transfer case shifter, relative lack of screens on dash, manual climate controls, and a simple big-block 6.8L pushrod engine that uses and is designed for old fashioned, better lubricating 5W-30 oil. No displacement on demand or cylinder deactivation on old-style big blocks. Just power and none of the woke savings, that probably look good for a bureaucrat in Washington DC trying to reduce emission and fuel economy on a national scale, while fucking over actual drivers as manufacturers comply with the government style. Pumping losses from a big block while coasting, idling losses at traffic light, and friction losses from 5W-30 are real, but on an individual consumer level are so pissy compared to the cost of a risk of non-long lasting block. Should shit break down, every hick town that smells like cow shit has a mechanic that can work on a Ford and get Ford parts, Toyotas while not uncommon locally, aren’t as easy to get repaired in the BFE.
Granted, I am a fucking luddite more concerned about my own self interest then saving my country, but I’m also not spending my hard earned money to save America or the climate. Best way to save climate is to leave your engine off. It’s not like my 5.3L on Big Red with it’s displacement on demand had a lifter fail, but it always was a risk in my mind, even if it was the rotted out frame that meant the end of it’ s life. A few years back, Toyotas also had their rot problems, but the Dana recall fixed that. Older Fords bed rot issues, but not so much recently. Had some lifter tick on ol Red but nothing bad compared to some which lead to often the destruction of cam shaft and engine. I doubt it saved enough fuel over 120,000 miles to be worth the risk even if it was on aggregate good for the nation. I also like how the F-250 XL have manual climate controls, old fashioned buttons and guages, and only a fairly minimal screen in driver’s window. Touch screen radio with Android Carplay, but that’s standard crap in 2025. Makes it easier for listening to Ian Tyson and Dick Curless going down the highway, as I listen to the growl of the destroked-Godzilla.
And the truth is I want an 8-foot bed for lots of room for camping, batteries, and supplies. Big alternator to top off the batteries when the multiple solar panels can’t get enough light in the shade. People told me years ago, get the extended cab, you’ll like all the room, but it just became a place for clutter and crap, taking more time to heat and cool the vehicle and making the truck longer and big then needed compared to just a long bed. Indeed, a long-bed regular cab F-250 is only 4 inches longer bumper to bumper then a 6-foot bed Tacoma as the Tacoma only comes in the quad cab design. Right now I have a lot of electrical stuff under the back set of my truck but if I got a long-bed, I’d mount all that crap in the bed where I much more be likely to use it.
I know I’m just extremely mentally ill for not craving a house in the suburbs with a hybrid SUV to drive to the suburban office building next to the old city garbage dump, grid tied solar panels, a 100 sq foot colored television for learning how awful the Trumpster is and paying for weekly plastics recycling hauling.
I picked up the apple cider vinegar habit after reading cattlemen use it to make cows drink more water and eat lower quality hay. While I don’t eat hay, definitely helps me drink more water as it’s so delicious and calorie free. You get a lot ACV as only use a little each glass for not a lot of money or trash. Not sure I believe in the woke health claims though beyond that drinking water is the healthiest beverage for refreshment.
Truth is I want to get Big Red to my family’s homestead by New Years Eve, so I can strip the equipment come spring and also get out camping after Christmas. But at same time, I want to savor the final drives before it’s done, getting as much use as I can out of it the final days and not hit a bump and crack it.
I was going to go to the Pine Bush 🌲 today and also to the thrift shop on Central, 👚 so I could have plenty of shirts going into the New Year, but honestly I think I should just wait to New Year, and then when I’m looking at vehicles also stop on by. I’ll catch the bus and bike 🚲 over there. I think there is one of the big Toyota dealers either across the street or down the road from the thrift shop, so I if I want to test drive or at least look at a Toyota Tacoma, I can do it there then pick up additional shirts as needed. I can also dig into my closet and find other, older shirts and just make due for the year, or if absolutely necessary, order something online. I mean buying a Tacoma would be the responsible decision, and maybe if I go to Toyota dealer first and try to get it in my mind, that’s what I want with all the geegaws 🛻 and not a basic park-department spec F-250 with eventually 35s or maybe 37s depending how severely mentally ill I become in my advanced age. Apparently you can easily get 35s under them if the internet is to be believed, and quite possibility 37s stock, though wheel rubbing can be an issue. Need a leveling kit or body lift, lol. Now I am sure my ad feeds will be full of advertisements for aceing the social security disability insurance exam, because I like big trucks with mud tires and I can not lie. And smoking grass and watching the garbage burn. 🔥 But don’t tell a liberal.
It’s kind of a raw morning, with the wind after the rain last night. ☔ It would not be a good day for doing much hiking or riding in the Pine Bush honestly if I had decided to go up there today. Instead, I’ll probably ride out to Five Rivers later today. 📚 My Hoopla books were returned, but I still have that book on raising livestock on Libby and I’ve been flipping through magazines 📖 on the Libby app. I love you can “subscribe” to magazines on Libby, and they send you push notifications when the latest Newsweek and Mother Earth News is avaliable on your phone. 📱 I actually really prefer to read on books and magazines on my phone over paper copies, you don’t have to go to the actual library, or worry about them getting wet or dirty especially up the wilderness. And you can read them in the dark. 🌃
I drove in yesterday, and everything was good, but I heard an unfamiliar rattle heading over to Walmart, 🛠️ which had me wondering if something had further broke or it was more wallowly then it was. But I slammed the passenger door tight, a bunch more rust fell off, and no more unusual rattle on the way home. The power of suggestion in my mind makes me imagine villains 👹 and things that are scary but don’t really exist. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a TikTok of a rusty Silverado breaking apart like the Toyotas of a certain vintage do, and sometimes Dodges. There is a lot of redundancy in frames, but even that at some point can be worn down. That Erie Boulevard and especially Water Street is rough on my tired old suspension on the truck. 😩 December 31st will be here, and it will be over before you know. I got extra bike tubes, lube, scrubbing pads, and toilet paper along with lots of rice and beans at Wally World because I figured it would be cheaper or more avaliable there, and it will more of a pain to get large packages or ride to Wally World on the bike, once Red is done. 🛒
I put in $30 in gas from the cheap gas station into Big Red, ⛽ snapping a picture as I realized that this would be the last fuel I would ever put into his tank. Maybe it was too much, I wanted to leave a bit of fuel in the tank come the winter so I can move it as needed, as I am leaving the solar connected to keep the batteries charged over the winter. I do need fuel for camping and a view visits to my parents and I might still drive back and forth to work, just for the memory experience enjoying Red in his last few hours. ⌛ People might be like it’s just a pickup truck – they GM cranked out more of the Silverados/Sierra 1500 then any another vehicle in 2011 – so it’s not a rare vehicle – though with the cap, the lift kit, wheels, it definately stands out and is big at nearly 9′ foot to roofline.
I am a little concern about the rain, snow and ice after expected after Christmas, ☃️ but I still think I want to camp regardless of potential hypothermia conditions, just because it will be my last chance with Red before he’s done. It’s not like I am going to be able to spend any days in the wilderness going forward until April when I take delivery of my next truck. And it won’t be another Red. Maybe it will be better but I have my doubts. 🤷♂️ Certainly you can’t go back in time. I just would like one last fire 🔥 to celebrate the closing of the year. Which honestly, when you consider the markets and when I consider the trips I did, including that extended summer vacation in Finger Lakes – 13 days leading up to Labor Day – it was a good trip. And I have Northern Michigan and Upper Peninsula to look forward to next year.
