If you listen to country music, you know trucks are a common theme. Singers associate them with the time they spent with their dad or grandpa, attracting – or losing – women, and epic bonfire parties. I can’t relate to watching the taillights of a pickup fade away in a cloud of red dirt as a girlfriend leaves me, but I do realize how trucks have been a part of major moments in my life – and that many of you can say the same thing.
FAMILY
The First
My parents went through several vehicles when I was a young child, but I don’t recall any of them being a pickup. The first one that comes to mind is the 1992 Toyota Pickup XtraCab 4X4 my dad purchased from our neighbor across the street in 2000 or so. When he got it, it seemed a little plain and wimpy, but he made it look much better by adding aftermarket wheels, 31-inch tires, and chrome mirror caps. The 22-RE I4 under the hood was an absolute workhouse that powered my dad’s countless trips to Home Depot as he added on to our house. That truck was also a learning tool; a few times when my dad wasn’t home, I took it around the block to get familiar with driving a five-speed manual transmission.
Making the Connection
Ever since I was a kid, my dad and I have talked cars. We never really bonded over one, though. We didn’t work on an old Mustang together or share time in a fun car. That changed several years ago when I got a 2019 Ford F-250 King Ranch FX4 to test. I needed to do something to use some of its vast capabilities. Luckily, my dad always has a home improvement project in mind so I asked him how I could use the truck to help. As I expected, he knew just the thing to do with it. He wanted to lay some road base down to form a makeshift driveway, so after we lined the $77,860 rig’s 6.75-foot bed with a tarp to keep it as clean as possible, we headed to the local quarry. We splashed through some mud to get to the loading zone, where we received 3,440 pounds of road base. The F-250’s 450-horsepower/935-lb-ft 6.7-liter Power Stroke turbodiesel V8 was unfazed.
It was a different story for me and my dad once we got all of that to his house and had to shovel it out in the lingering Texas summer heat. But it was worth the exertion: My dad and I shared an unforgettable experience in a truck and in the process, helped each other.
LOVE
First Date
The Nissan Titan XD with the Cummins 5.0-liter turbodiesel V8 is one of the most significant trucks in my life because it was the one I was evaluating when I went on my first date with the woman who’s now my wife. I did use its bed to haul some ladders and building materials to two of my dad’s rental properties, but the Titan XD’s handsome styling and comfortable and spacious interior got a much more important job done: getting me a second date.
Altar-ed Future
Several years later, I had the privilege of flying from Austin, Texas to attend the media launch for the updated 2020 Ford Super Duty in Phoenix. I knew prospective buyers would be impressed by its 1,050 lb-ft of available Power Stroke torque, 10-speed automatic, optional “Godzilla” 7.3-liter gas V8, and Tremor off-road model. However, I wasn’t aware of how significant the host hotel in nearby Litchfield, The Wigwam, would be in my future. When my fiance and I were touring potential wedding venues in the summer of 2022, The Wigwam was one of our stops. The second we saw its outdoor wedding area, we envisioned saying our vows there, which we did a few months later.
Ready to Go
Nearly two years before my wife and I were married, we moved from Austin to Phoenix in January 2021. After the moving van was on its way to Arizona with our stuff and our place was clean, I had a few minutes to relax and reflect on what was about to happen. Once again, a truck was there to help me transition to the next milestone in my life. This time, it was a $71,910 2021 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali CarbonPro Edition. I lowered the MultiPro Tailgate and its helpful assist step, took a seat, and listened to the country music coming out of the built-in 100-watt Kicker audio system. Shortly after my fiance arrived home, it was time to say our goodbyes, load our suitcases into the lightweight carbon fiber composite bed, and head to the airport. How fitting that the last vehicle we drove in Texas was a pickup truck.
The Road Home
Earlier this year, my wife and I closed on our first house, where we’ll raise our first child together. Moving things from our rental to both Goodwill and our new place required several trips, with our vehicles filled with clothing, boxes of dishes and small housewares, and who-knows-how-many miscellaneous items. Many of the review vehicles I tested during our seemingly endless moving process were light on cargo space, but we were fortunate that one of them happened to be the 2025 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport (review coming soon). We flipped up the back seats to transport a short shelving unit in the second row, filled its 7.3-cubic-foot in-bed trunk with smaller items, and carried several loads of various pieces of furniture in the 5’4″ composite bed. That truck literally carried my family into its future.
Which important parts of your life do you associate with trucks? Tell us in the comments below.
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