Chevrolet C10 Marfa, Texas

                                                                              Pinto Canyon Road

Truck used to belong to City of Marfa. There's one like it--but a longbed--in a scrapyard out near the airport. This one was reasonably well-preserved for a truck that had been on the city payroll for twenty-six years or so. It has a 305 motor, despised by hotrodders--but I'm not. Ricky Rojo rebuilt the transmission last year. It runs a smooth 70 mph on the highway between Marfa and the skateboard park in Alpine. We drove the truck from Marfa down to Big Bend in January. Longest truck trip this year was to Odessa, in March, when I was interviewed on the local CBS channel about my new novel The O'Briens. Odessa was maybe three hundred miles r/t, and no problems. Hector Sanchez painted it in April-May 2011, during last year's terrible fire season. Hector is a volunteer fireman, and I think he was pulling some 24-hour days on the job, but he still got the truck done.