Truckin’
I had a friend's truck for this past weekend. In addition to work, I took it down to Town Lake for a jog, to Dobie Theatre for Good bye, Lenin!, out to a frisbee game, and finally back to the airport to pick up the owner. It was a good experience. I learned that I don't want a truck.
The suspension had a sort of role-ly feeling. I sure wouldn't want to try an emergency avoidance maneuver a highway speeds. The width made it something of a tight fit in some lanes. The size made it hard to park. The turning radius was pathetic. Fortunately, I didn't have to buy it any gas. I soon found myself looking down enviously at the small, nimble cars around me.
It's probably worth mentioning that isn't the first time I've driven a truck, though I don't recall ever driving a pickup before. I've driven moving trucks from North Carolina to Maine and back and from North Carolina to Texas and back (though the last time I did that, I didn't go back). Those were 10' or 14' moving trucks. I've driven 17' foot moving trucks full of band equipment around Durham, N.C. I've driven a 15 passenger van (which later pulled a car trailer and car). Generally it's been fun and entertaining, part of some big project of moving lots of stuff. When I've had the moving trucks for a couple extra days as part of one-way-move contracts, I've even enjoyed tooling around Durham and Austin in my oversized ride.
At the end of the day, I'll stick to my Corolla, though I'd rather have a Prius. Maybe I will someday, but I just paid off my Corolla a year ago now, so I'll have to wait a little while for it to wear out.
P.S. that Town Lake link that I discovered to use above has some nice pictures of where I like most to go jogging. I really should take some such photos of my own.