While we loved our Explorer, the poor thing just wasn’t built to haul around our heavy boat and trailer. If the awful towing gas mileage is any indication of how hard the engine is working, we knew we needed to make a change.
Jim has been looking at used trucks for awhile, and he finally found one with the right miles, the right features, and the right price down the road at Bowen Scarff Ford. (That’s where we bought our first Explorer, and we really like it there.)
After testing it out for nearly a whole day, we decided to make the deal. Good-bye, Explorer, hello F350 lariat crew cab long bed super duty 4×4 turbo diesel! And yes, it fits in the driveway. We can now tow the equivalent of twice our boat and trailer without nearing the limit… and fit a whole lot of stuff in the back.
I think the most excited person in this whole transaction was JT. In fact, we had an embarrassing little episode…
We test drove the truck on Tuesday, but by the time we were ready to do paperwork the financing bank was closed for the day. So we talked about taking it home anyway but finally decided to leave it and go back on Wednesday to seal the deal. JT was so very happy to be riding around in “Dad’s truck” that, when he saw us move his car seat back to the Explorer to go home, he started yelling, “MYYYYY TRUCK TRUCK!” in the middle of the dealership. It was pretty pathetic. The woman handling the financing felt so badly that JT was sad that she wanted us to take the truck home for an “overnight test drive.”
No, thank you, we said… thinking this was a little ridiculous. When we went back on Wednesday to pick up the truck, JT was so relieved. 🙂 Here he is enjoying his new ride, forward-facing two months earlier than we’d planned.
The Keene Family 
Dear Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Becky:Madi, your beloved neice, says that your truck is ugly! She says that the only reason you bought it was because it is Alabama maroon. It is apparent that she has \”issues\” with your truck … perhaps jealousy, bitterness, envy, because she is a southern redneck woman at heart. Being the big Gretchen Wilson fan that she is … deep down in her heart she, I believe, wants to have one just like her aunt and uncle the first day she drives to school with her drivers license at 16 … but jacked up about twice as tall. Anyway, I have enrolled her in anti-Alababma-Ford therapy … will let you know how she progresses.
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