'It's not quite as pretty as it used to be'
If life is a highway, Doug Johnston's gonna ride it to it's fullest.
Like a favored suitcase, the Evans City native's 1999 Ford F-150 pickup tells a story of travels past.
There are stickers from the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, the petrified forest and the Indianapolis Speedway.
Another part of the story is told by the odometer, now breaking the 261,000 mile mark.
"I think I can double that," Johnston said. "I baby my vehicles."
Johnston, 46, said he picked his truck on June 23, 2002, because it was a deal at $10,000. And it was sharp.
"It's not quite as pretty as it used to be," Johnston says with a laugh.
Years of travel, leisure and work carrying landscaping and scrap have taken a toll on the truck's looks. One of the fenders is even a different shade of red than it once was.
"I call that the chameleon affect," he said.
But the truck has been sturdy and true. It's taken him on numerous travels without much trouble.Once a tire rod broke, but that ... "lucky thing" ... was just after he returned home last summer from one of two trips to Utah.His most precious cargo, he said, is his two collie-chow mix pet dogs: Scar and Frisky."They have been to nine states," he said. "New York to Florida."Because he still has a fondness for the truck that has accompanied him so many places so many times, he's given it a new exhaust and replaced the stereo.But make no mistake about it, Johnston loves his motorcycle, a 1998 VT 1100 C Honda Shadow, even more than his truck."I've been riding a bike since I was 4, and I'll never give it up," he said. "They'll will have to pry my cold dead hands off the handlebars."<BR><B>OWNER:</B> Dave Johnston<B>VEHICLE:</B> Ford F-150<B>MILES:</B> 261,000
