Betsy's Dead! Long Live Betsy!

I deserve all the ridicule and shame I'm going to get for this post. Betsy is a 1971 GMC 3/4 ton truck that a buddy and I bought about 5 years ago to use as a general utility truck. She has served us well during that time - always starting up, even in the dead of winter, and never leaving us on the side of the road. Everyone in West Seattle knew and loved Betsy and used her frequently. Although she had her fair share of annoying habits like the heater that is either way too hot or simply not on at all, the near complete lack of defrosting, and the recent habit of the lights not working unless you keep your foot on the bright switch and blind everyone else on the road, she was an awesome truck.

I speak in the past tense because I killed her a couple weeks ago. Nothing dramatic like running her off the road or into a ditch or anything. No, I simply killed her through neglect. You see, Betsy had a leaky radiator ever since we bought her. I even put a list of "Betsy Rules" on the glove box that included "4. Watch for Overheating" and told everyone to check the radiator on occasion. I think most of Betsy's admirers actually followed that advise and I too often checked her radiator and added a little . . . water.

Yep, water. I've known ever since I was a teenager that you need to keep at least a 50% mix of water and anti-freeze in a radiator. But of course, I never followed that rule when it came to Betsy and two weeks ago, the poor old truck froze to death. It got down to about 16 degrees here in Seattle that week and stayed below 25 for several days. The second night of the freeze I woke up realizing what I had done, but it was too late. An autopsy confirmed the cause of death last Wednesday - a cracked block.

As if to add insult to injury though, Betsy still starts up like nothing is wrong and sounds beautiful until you hear the water gushing out of the crack in the block. It's a very sad situation. We are exploring our options now. The cost of replacing the engine and the radiator (oh yeah, it split too) could easily exceed the cost of a comparable truck, so we may just buy a new (old) truck. But that comes with all kinds of other potential problems, so who knows, Betsy may roll again someday. RIP Betsy.