Tag Archives: Pick-up trucks

61. Mud Riding (Filthy, Low Budget Entertainment)

27 Jan

Photo by Andrew Barron
Flickr Creative Commons

I’ll begin this with a caveat: I’ve never actually been mud riding. But I do know folks who have.

If you’ve never heard of mud riding, it’s a fairly simple concept: take one pick-up truck, add people, find some mud, drive around in it. Isn’t that messy? Heck, yeah. But some of the best things in life are – ribs, for example. I, myself don’t see the fun in slinging mud into every nook and cranny of my vehicle. Especially knowing that I’d eventually have to clean up the mess. I’m pretty sure the folks who were eager to pile in the pickup on Saturday night are none too keen on pitching in at the car wash on Sunday morning. But somehow the trucks do get clean. Sure, you’ll see an occasional truck-shaped mound of mud on the road, but they’re really the exception.

Photo by lostinthesparks86 Flickr Creative Commons

I couldn’t tell you how mud riding got started. I reckon it just took one person to get their truck stuck in the mud and think, “hey, this is cool.” And they told their friends, and they told their friends, and so on.

Probably girls have been known to go mud riding, but I think it’s mainly a boy sport (and I use the word “sport” very loosely). Call me sexist, but I think the desire to revel in filth rests on the Y chromosome.

If you’re tempted to try mud riding but don’t actually own a pick up, I reckon an SUV would do. I would not, however, try it with a Volkswagen Beetle (old or new) or any sort of four-door family cruiser. And whatever you do, resist the urge to take someone else’s vehicle out for a quick trip through the local mud pit. If you’d like to remain on speaking terms with them, anyway.

In fact, if you’d like to try mud riding, the best thing to do is find someone who’s already going and tag along. That’s what most people do, which I reckon is why they call it “mud riding” and not “mud driving.”

Have you ever been mud riding? Would you do it again?

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18. Pick-up Trucks: Tonka Toys for Grownups?

29 Jan

One good thing about living in the South is that you always know at least half a dozen folks with pick-up trucks in case you need to haul something somewhere. Even better, most folks are happy to help. I can’t quite explain the popularity of the pick-up because I figure that about 90% of the time 90% of pick-up drivers aren’t hauling anything anywhere. But then again, you can’t have a proper tailgating party without a tail gate, so maybe that’s reason enough. Besides, it’s hard to outfit a Volkswagon Beetle with a gun rack…

These days, my 5-year-old nephew must be properly strapped in his car seat before we leave the driveway, and I’m all the time reminding my sister that when we were five, we rode around in the back of pick-ups on a fairly regular basis. “Yeah, well, that was then, this is now,” she’ll say like an S.E. Hinton novel.

Driving in the South, you’ll see all sorts of things hauled around in pick-ups: firewood, mattresses, watermelons, four wheelers, dogs, whatever. I once worked for a small town newspaper, and during hunting season, folks would drive up wanting me to take a picture of the dead deer in the back of their truck. They figured it was news. And sadly, the town was small enough that sometimes it was.

The weirdest thing I’ve ever seen hauled in a pick-up was a dead Holstein. I had to ask myself 1: Where are they taking a dead dairy cow? And 2: How’d they get it into the back of that pick-up? I still have no answers…

Do you drive a truck? What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever had the occasion to haul?

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