I love my truck, I really do. I love it enough to write about it. In some ways, I feel guilty that I'm writing about my truck before I write about Candy, but Candy has her own blog and my truck doesn't. I help represent those who can not represent themselves. (That's my own word!) I have a 1997 Toyota Zace. For all of you reading back in North America, you won't have any idea what that is. The Z captured my eye immediately when I got out here. The best word for it is "Old School". It really is. It's like an old school Landcruiser mated with an old school 4Runner, and their offspring is the Zace.
The Z's got lots of room inside. The back seat folds down nicely to fit our mountain bikes in the back. If I take off the headrest from the front passenger seat, my surfboard fits perfectly inside the cab, and that's no small task when you surf on a 9'4" board. I use my old 9mm climbing rope to lasso it into place so it doesn't fly around while I'm driving through the concrete jungle. Abbotsfordians, pay respect to the climbing rope that we all learned to climb on. It's still in use, although I wouldn't trust my life one it.
When I take out the back seat, I can put in my foam and sleep in the back. Now, I'm a bit longer than the back part of the cab, but I bought some mesh netting and a bunch of industrial magnets. I jerry-rig up a nice mosquito netting and keep the back door open so my feet can hang out the back without getting eaten alive, and it keeps the air flowing cause it gets real hot, real quick when that sun comes up. It may not be my VW van, but I can still sleep in it and I love that.
Now, a cross between a Landcruiser and a 4Runner would be a 4X4, you would expect. Much to my dismay, it is in fact, not! It still feels like it is, and sometimes this gets me into trouble. During a surf competition at WuShiGang (Black Stone Harbor), just shortly after I bought the Z, we were all camping out on the beach. I found an access point, and although I was cautious about driving on sand, it was very hard packed and I figured that I should be able to make it. I did make it, and crashed in the back of the Z and was loving life until the competition was over. As I went to drive away, I found out for the first time that the Z was in fact rear wheel drive. As I tried to pull out, it didn't move, so I gunned it and she sank faster than the Titanic in an iceberg field. Luckily, I had 20 friends there to help me push it out.
So, that's the story of my Z. I love her and she loves me. She suits me well as you can see.
