CHAPTER 0NE:
The demise of a maroon Ranchero!
For quite some time my dad has owned and suffered a late nineties Ford Ranchero.As you can tell from the heading of this chapter it is unfortunately a distinct and distasteful maroon colour!Hence he decided to move on to greener pastures
as you will understand later these "greener" pastures would end up being my blessing/curse
CHAPTER TWO:
What did you say?Someone wants the Ranchero?
After advertising it on a local advertising network my father received a response and a Chev forward patrol with a caravan conversion was offered as a trade this is a vehicle used in the South African Defence Force, during the late seventies its origins are civilian but modifications were performed by the SADF to enable military applications eg converting the 4.1 litre straight engine to 4.7 litre making sure that tax expenditure was utilised wisely as this conversion ensured one to three kilometres per litre!I naturally I convinced my dad (or was it the other way around) that an,
ex military vehicle with similar fuel consumption to the space shuttle is exactly what this family needs!
we felt we had been drifting apart and family unity would only be restored with this vehicle.So in no time my Dad and I made the arrangements to drive the Ranchero to the town Zeerust to deliver the Ranchero and collect the forward patrol
CHAPTER THREE:
The long and winding road.
The plan was that we would leave at 05:30 am the following Saturday but due to unforeseen circumstances to mundane to mention in this tale we departed just before 07:00 and commenced our journey heading ever north-westward towards Zeerust! the trip went smoothly we did however stop in a one horse town,
(where the horse I believe committed suicide?)
called Swartruggens here we hastily refuelled the ranchero being a 4.0 litre straight six that would also not win any economy runs.