I replaced the XTerra in Chattanooga with a 1993 Ford Ranger.

June 14, 2025. Day .

front view of 1993 Ford Ranger.

So, I made it to Chattanooga for my mom's birthday weekend, despite the loss of my car, but already I was sweating at the idea of having to maybe fly home.

The last time I flew it was from Chattanooga to New Orleans, two half-hour flights, and it was miserable. I got a window seat, but I looked at seatguru.com (the airplane seat maps site; what, you've never heard of it?) and there was an asterisk. What did the asterisk mean? "There is no window at this window seat location." Thanks, Delta. I had to set under a big plastic bulkhead of some kind, wanting to take my pants off and lay in the aisle the whole eternal half-hour flight.

Anyway, I hate to fly. So Trey and Becca and Matt and I got cracking, looking for a vehicle on Craigslist. As often happens, Trey found it: a 1993 Ford Ranger, red. It said it had been well cared for. I got in touch with the seller and we planned to meet that afternoon at a grocery store parking lot on Ringgold Road.

We found the seller at the edge of the lot. He brought his grandma along. They both brought their guns. I took it for a test drive, shifted through all five speeds (manually), and said O.K.! We arranged to meet at the seller's bank in North Georgia the next day to give him the (very reasonable amount of) money and get the papers notarized. When it was done I got on my phone to see if I could add the vehicle to my car insurance through the app, but pretty instantly my phone died.

So I didn't have plates or insurance yet, but I figured I could get it home at least, it was less than ten miles. But I got pulled over in the first thirty seconds after I got on the interstate. It was a motorcycle cop, Georgia Highway Patrol I guess, very central casting. Trey was riding with me and I told him I was really nervous. He said just be calm, you have the papers right here, it's not gonna be a problem. He was right -- just act calm.

Because I was close to the roadway the cop came to the passenger door. Trey rolled down the window and started talking. The cop interrupted him. "You seem really nervous!", he said, to Trey. "You were jumping all around, like you were trying to hide something. Were you trying to hide something?" Trey gave him the "no sir" but it didn't seem like the cop cared that much. Obviously we knew why we got pulled over — no plates. So we showed him the papers and explained we had just bought the car a minute ago. It was all fine. The cop even joked that we were less than a hundred yards from the Tennessee border, and if we had been a little bit faster we would have been Tennessee's problem, not his. I think he congratulated us on the truck purchase. We were free to go, I was turning the key, and then Trey, for some reason, asked the cop "By the way, is it required to have insurance if the vehicle was purchased in Georgia but...blah blah blah"; I dont remember exactly what he said, but the cop leaned back in and asked me "Hey, yeah, do you have insurance?" I had to tell him the whole lame story about "my phone died", which probably should have gotten me a ticket for Lame Excuse Giving, but I guess he decided I was Tennessee's problem after all, and told us not to cause any accidents on the way home. It was good police work, I'd say.

I have to give Trey a lot of credit. One, he found the truck. Two, I just trust his judgement on things. I asked him to test drive the truck as well. He seemed to think that was unnecessary (which is flattering to me) but I'm glad he did, he had a lot to say about the truck after that. And three, I'm actually glad he was there to run intereference with the motorcycle cop. I might have had a bad attitude face and gotten taken into custody, who knows.

Here are some more pictures from purchase day:

rear view of 1993 Ford Ranger.