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Abandoned Automobiles at Big Bend

I wish I knew their stories

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Photo copyright Julia A. Keirns

I do not know anything about vehicles. If you drive a white truck, it looks like every other white truck. Rich is trying to teach me how to tell if it is a Ford or a Chevy, etc. But the fact is, I really don’t care that much about what it is. Or at least I didn’t think I did. I find that I have an interest what the abandoned vehicles are. It is fun to find out.

I found some neat old vehicles in the Big Bend area and decided to try to find out what I could about them. I started out asking Rich, then I went to a brother, and ended up using Google’s photo search function.

This is a truck.

Besides making a great flower planter, as my brother suggested, the truck in the picture above looks to be around a 1940's International Harvester or Chevy pickup truck. Of course, this is a guess. I think it looks more like the Chevy. It has probably had parts added on over the years. It has good patina. Things rust differently in dry climates.

Photo copyright Julia A. Keirns

This is a car.

Possibly a 1950's Ford Coupe. I found out that things rust slower in the desert because water speeds up the rusting process and these vehicles don’t get rained on very much in the desert climate of Big Bend.

Photo copyright Julia A. Keirns

Slug Bug, no hit backs!

Yes, as childish as it is, somehow when the kids were younger they got us playing the slug bug game where the first one who sees the Volkswagon lightly, but firmly, hits the other person and says, “Slug bug, no hit backs.”

Google says this is a Baja Bug, which is a Volkswagon Beetle that has been modified to run offroad. I wish it ran. Rich and I could use this to travel down some of these back roads our car hits bottom on.

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Julia A. Keirns
Julia A. Keirns

Written by Julia A. Keirns

Currently living in an RV full time and traveling across North America. The goal is simply to write about it. Editor of Fiction Shorts, the Challenged, and ROD.

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