Other cars I've owned included a Pinto (!) and a 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix. The GP was possibly the best car I've ever owned in that although I never took care of it, it was like the Energizer Bunny - it kept going, and going, and going...

1967 Volkswagon Mini-Bus
I had this in Detroit circa 1972.
That van took me to a lot of places, and it didn't even have a heater.

I started restoring it when I got the itch to move again. I had about $1700 invested at that point, but I went back to CA and the car was sold for the $700 I paid originally.

This was my first new motorcycle. The "Roadster" was a twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the Harley-Davidson "Sportster". It was identified by special emblems and paint, and the cases were finished in black crinkle paint.

I bought the bike new in 1982 when I first started working at the refinery. I was living in Manhattan Beach and my parking area for the bike was on a slab in front of the house, about four feet above the yard below. One night some asshole hit it while I wa sleeping and knocked it over the side, down onto the lawn below. The damage was minimal, but I had the thing for a couple of years at that point, and I wanted to make some changes. Oh-oh!

So, I purchased a ton of parts for the conversion and I proceeded to strip the bike down to its frame, and I do mean its bare frame - there was nothing left on it except the bearing races. I told you I had plans, but you know what they say about plans ...

Nothing much happened with the bike for the next seven or eight years while I concentrated on my drinking. Meanwhile my brother Rick was living in Colorado and was in need of some economical transportation.

At the time, he was commuting about seventy miles to school each day and he needed some form of transport that was fuel efficient; I had just purchased the Corvette and needed room in the garage, so I gave him the bike with the provision that he not sell it to anyone else -- that it would only revert to me. He reassembled the bike and gave it a nice paint job. When he died I got it back. It has since been sold.

This was the second new truck I bought.

I purchased this truck in 2001, but when I decided to trailer my Corvette in 2002 I had to step up to a larger more powerful truck; the 2001 had a V-6 with a five-speed, hardly enough to pull a loaded trailer around the country. That's when I bought my current truck, the F-250 Super Duty and in no way am I sorry that I did - it's the best truck I ever had.

I bought the F-250 using the F-150 as a trade-in, and although it showed 146,000 miles on the odometer I did nothing more than perform routine maintenance on the truck, such as changing the oil and filter, the transmission oil and filter, the front and rear differential lube, the serpentine belt, and anything else I could think of in preparation for a cross-country journey.

I towed the trailer around the country for six weeks that year, from Laguna Seca to Bowling Green to New Jersey then finally to Florida before heading home again. I put 8,200 miles on the truck and the only problem that ever showed was a temporary check engine code once while driving through the panhandle of Florida. Otherwise the truck performed flawlessly.

There was less than 3,000 miles on the F-150 when I traded it back in. I took a hell of a hit on the depreciation I know, but I had to do something and I had to do it quick. What the hell ... No regrets, right?

This was the only trailer I have ever owned. I purchased the Featherlite trailer in 2002, at the same time I bought the F-250SD, so I could tow my Corvette across the country. Though it was my first trailer, I had no difficulty learning the ropes and getting a feel for how the thing was going to affect my driving. Of course, driving tractors towing trailer-loads of hay when I worked on a farm helped a lot. Especially when you consider the fact that the trailers I towed and backed up on the farm were steerable trailers, that is, the front axles on those trailers turned with the tongue. That can take a little time getting used to because normally to go left you'll have to steer right, but with a turning axle you'll have to flip that around again, and to go to the right while backing up you also steer to the right. It can be a little confusing at first - hell, I can't even explain it correctly.