
if you listen Country music, you know trucks are a common theme. Singers linked these to times they spent with their fathers or grandfathers, attracting or losing women, and epic campfire parties. When my girlfriend left me, I couldn’t imagine the pickup truck’s taillights disappearing into the red dirt, but I did realize how the truck had been part of an important moment in my life – and many of you can say the same thing.
family
first one
When I was a kid, my parents saw a few cars, but I don’t remember any of them being pickup trucks. The first thing that comes to mind is the 1992 Toyota pickup XtraCab 4X4 my dad bought from his neighbor across the street around 2000. When he got it, it looked a little plain and wimpy, but he made it look a lot better by adding aftermarket wheels, 31-inch tires, and chrome mirror caps. The 22-RE I4 under the hood was an absolute workhouse, powering countless trips to Home Depot for my dad as he added to our house. That truck was also a learning tool; a few times, when my dad wasn’t home, I drove it around the block to get familiar with driving the five-speed manual transmission.
Make connections
I grew up talking about cars with my dad. We never really connected over one person, though. We didn’t develop an old Mustang together or spend time together in a fun car. That changed a few years ago when I got a 2019 Ford F-250 King Ranch FX4 to test. I needed to do something to take advantage of some of its great features. Luckily, my dad had always had a home improvement project in mind, so I asked him about using his truck to help. As I expected, he knew what to do. He wanted to lay down some roadbed to form a temporary driveway, so after we laid a tarp over the $77,860 rig’s 6.75-foot bed to keep it as clean as possible, we headed to the local quarry. We splashed through some mud to the loading area where we received 3,440 pounds of roadbed. The F-250’s 450 hp/935 lb-ft 6.7-liter Power Stroke turbodiesel V8 engine is not affected.
It was a different story for my dad and I when we delivered all this stuff to his house and had to shovel it away in the lingering Texas summer heat. But it was worth it: My father and I shared an unforgettable experience in the truck, and we helped each other along the way.
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first date

The Nissan Titan XD with the Cummins 5.0-liter turbodiesel V8 is one of the most important trucks of my life because I was evaluating it when I was first dating my now-wife. I did use its bed to haul some ladders and building materials to two of my dad’s rental properties, but the Titan XD’s handsome styling and comfortable, roomy interior got the bigger job done: Give me a second date.
The future of the altar

A few years later, I had the privilege of flying from Austin, Texas, to Phoenix for the media launch of the updated 2020 Ford Super Duty. I know potential buyers will be impressed with its 1,050 pound-feet of available Power Stroke torque, 10-speed automatic transmission, optional “Godzilla” 7.3-liter gasoline V8 engine, and Tremor off-road trim. However, I had no idea how important The Wigwam, a hospitality hotel near Lichfield, would be to my future. When my fiancé and I were touring potential wedding venues in the summer of 2022, The Wigwam was one of our stops. When we saw its outdoor wedding area for the second time, we envisioned saying our vows there, which we did a few months later.
ready to go

About two years before my wife and I got married, we moved from Austin to Phoenix in January 2021. After the moving van loaded up our stuff and headed to Arizona and our place was clean, I had a few minutes to relax and reflect on what was about to happen. Once again, a truck helped me transition into the next milestone in my life. This time it’s a 2021 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali CarbonPro Edition priced at $71,910. I lowered the MultiPro tailgate and its helpful assist pedal, sat back, and listened to country music blasting from the built-in 100-watt Kicker sound system. Shortly after my fiancé arrived home, it was time for us to say goodbye, load our suitcases into the lightweight carbon fiber composite bed, and head to the airport. It was only fitting that the last car we drove in Texas was a pickup truck.
way home

Earlier this year, my wife and I closed on our first house where we would raise our first child together. Moving stuff from our rental to Goodwill and our new place took several trips, and our car was filled with clothes, a few boxes of dishes and small household items, and who knows how much miscellaneous items. Many of the review vehicles I tested during my seemingly endless moves had little cargo space, but we were lucky enough that one of them happened to be a 2025 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport (review coming soon). We flipped the rear seats to transport a short rack in the second row, filled its 7.3-cubic-foot in-bed trunk with smaller items, and loaded the 5-foot-4-inch composite bed with a few assorted pieces of furniture . That truck literally carried my family into the future.
What important parts of your life involve trucks? Let us know in the comments below.
(tag translation) American Truck
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