Y’all know we loved our old truck, but, sadly, it was getting too old to keep pulling the trailer with, especially on long, remote roads. We finally decided it was time for a new truck. Of course, with Covid and all the shortages it was the exact WRONG time to buy a truck. New super duty trucks were just not available, and we would have been happy to buy a used truck, but they were selling for outrageous prices!

After doing some research and a lot of serious thinking, we decided to order a new truck. The process was a little bit easier because we knew we wanted an F350 diesel with 4WD. We also knew we didn’t want duallys or a crew cab. So that mostly left us with picking a color and options.

We ordered it from a dealer in Mesa while we were still in California, knowing it would be 3-5 months before it came in. After a couple of manufacturing delays, it’s finally ours! We took delivery on February 28th!

So, meet Rad – which is short for Radagast (The Brown) – who is Gandalf’s friend in Lord of the Rings. Since our Solitude is “Ollie”, named for Gandalf (see our earlier post), it is only fitting he begin his journey with his best friend pulling him along wherever he goes!

We sure did appreciate our old truck, The Beast. It was a great truck for us for 20+ years. Mike used to joke with folks “Yup, she’s old enough to vote and almost old enough to drink!” Hopefully it will have a nice easy retirement and not have to pull such a big load.