"Bring me a wheel barrow full of money and you can have your truck back."

That's what our wonderful mechanic said when he called to let us know the truck was finally ready to hit the road again!

So ...

that's exactly what we did.

(He is a really great guy who just retired from the military, and works on the trucks in his garage ... we'd met his little boy and knew he'd enjoy the wheel barrow once his dad took the money out!)

Mechanic laughed when he saw the wheel barrow, it was so much fun. :)

So the good news is that the truck is finally back up and running. The bad news is that it still need some additional work to be 'in ideal shape', but it runs fine as it is, and I am happy! We ended up replacing the engine with a 2L - it had a 3L before. The 2L can have a turbo (although I don't have the manifold, which we need to set up the turbo ... that's the next piece of work to be done as it's still a bit gutless on the highway without the turbo). I am glad to have found someone trustworthy to work on the truck: he and his family are off to Nova Scotia on a holiday for the next couple of weeks, but when he comes back and we have the extra parts here, he's willing to do the additional work on mine. Union Guy needs a bit of tweaking done to his as well, and Mechanic says he'll be bored if he has no trucks to work on, so he'll still do a little bit on the side ... just not too much. :)

At dinner tonight we blessed our mechanic. I am sure God understands why!