True Love

I retired, 12 years Army, in 2013. At that time, I came back home to Missouri but had no family left to come home to in Excelsior Springs, my home town. So, I came to Springfield, Missouri, where my uncle, aunt, and grandma lived.

During my transition, I found myself going through a divorce and I became homeless. I slept in my storage unit for about a month until I saved enough money and purchased a full-size Chevy express van. I also started attending OTC every day, where I met the love of my life. You see, she was a lab tech at the hospital and made a lot of money and intimidated everyone everywhere she went. I found myself often thinking about her and wondering what she was doing and I really wanted to know who she was when no one was looking. Who was she when not in public and at home just hanging out?

Well, I finally got the chance to talk to her and become friends. After a short while, she learned that I lived in my van and without hesitation and no further intentions, invited me to temporarily stay in a room in her house. While I had been offered the same a few other times, I kindly refused and just stuck it out on my own, not wanting to be a burden on anyone. For some reason however, I accepted her offer and I thank the gods that I did!

Of course, we would got chances to be friends and talked about ups and downs, and our lives on few occasions when our busy schedules happened to overlap. She’s from the big city New York and in many ways, we are exactly opposite. While I am more of the country side, she is anything but. However, we still connected very well and eventually became a couple.

I have always owned trucks. I have always had the type of lifestyle that fit owning a truck and she owned a VW Bug. Total opposite, cute right? She would always make the statement of my “big, loud, stupid truck.”

When I was little, my uncle was like my father most of the time and taught me a great deal of lessons. He and my aunt owned a pair of Blazers, and spent many nights sleeping and raveling the country in them, and were very partial to the Chevy Blazer truck. Hell, he’s even got a carcass of one still living out back behind his shop that he will never get rid of. I remember him letting me drive them and helping him wrench on them, and one day he let me drive his big one, while we were on a tight trail. For whatever reason, I don’t remember many times of my childhood, but I sure do remember every time I got to be his hunting buddy or tool/beer fetcher, and when on that said trail, I rolled his Blazer totally on its side in a washout just around a corner that I wasn’t ready for. Well, of course I was freaking out about his truck but he held his cool and called for reinforcements to winch it out. So, you see, I’ve always been a Blazer fan and have always wanted one.

You remember that “love of my life”? Well, she has put together a packet to go to med school and has also gotten back into the Army as an E-6 drill sergeant. Yeah, wow! From there, the plan is to have the Army pay for her med school, where she will probably be on a coast somewhere far away from ol’ Missouri for a long time. I don’t quite know what that will mean for us but I do know that I love her with everything I am!

When she left, I had a chance to purchase a 1986 cucv M1009 Chevy Blazer original Army camo 6.2L diesel with a turbo and straight piped. Well, you bet yer tail I jumped on that one and I couldn’t be more happier with it. This thing has a 4″ lift, 33×12.5×15 tires, a train horn, and gets 20mpg average combined. I get the feeling of my Army life that I didn’t want to leave, the comforting childhood memories with my uncle, and in my head, I get to hear my SSG DS love of my life complain about my “big, stupid, loud truck” every time I drive it. I will never get rid of my stupid truck!