Jeff has a '66 Ranchero. Jeff gives me a ride. Jeff earns my eternal gratitude.

Today I was hanging out with some friends and end up talking with a guy I’ve spoken to a handful of times over the past year or so. I didn’t know much about him except that he does auto body work and has a nice old Ford. Today while we’re talking he says a couple of things about art and I got, “So…you do art work?” He chuckles and says, “Um, yeah. I graduated from [noted art school].” He adds that he’s done some work for the governor and “this boat. I built a boat. It’s over by…” and he gave the general description off of a given highway. I couldn’t picture it, and he says, “You wanna to see it? I was just about to take off.” I agree, we go out to the car, and I realize that I’m going to get a ride in this:

1966 Ford Ranchero

I dig old cars. I dig old hot rods. This car is both (okay, it’s a truck and not a car, but whatever), and he drives it regularly. It has a 289, front disc brakes, and a 5spd manual transmission, plus the uber-groovy Torque Thrust mags. It was awesome. He drove me out to the site where his sculpture is located, and we checked it out. It’s a boat in a water runoff area. The height of the water in relation to the boat is sort of a measure of how well the area is functioning, plus it makes a statement about the intended use of the area and its necessity (the area was formerly just a dumping ground for trash). I would have a pic of that, but the weather was too bad to get a good shot of it.

Anyway, pic a day for today resulted in two pics, but I figured you would’t mind, ’cause that truck is just so cool.