I sent the seller of the white 1998 Ranger an email and left a message both at home and on a cell and haven’t received a reply. Maybe it’s not the right truck.

Even though this makes me a little nervous, I increased the price criteria to $5,000 and spotted a 2003 with 167000KM and a topper. It’s a bit bigger than what I want since it has an extended cab (four doors), but it looks great, is only about 3,300lbs, and it’s my favourite colour of all the Ford Rangers, dark green.

I just emailed the seller (no phone number in the ad) and made a conditional cash offer pending an inspection. The truck has been listed for a month and revised a few times, so I low balled and offered $3,500 to be reviewed upwards or downwards based on the results of the inspection. I really don’t want to go above $4,500, but since the tow package isn’t going to be as costly as I had budgeted, I’m willing to stretch. Plus it’s fairly recent and has relatively low mileage.

Whichever Ranger my toad ends up being, it’ll essentially be an RV once I’m through converting the back. It’s going to have a bed, desk, potty, rudimentary plumbing, and a 12V electrical system (deep cycle battery connected to truck alternator for charging with both a 12V outlet and an inverter for 120V power).

I’ve had the name of my next RV in the back of my mind for a while now, but I’m sure I won’t be replacing Miranda or RVing beyond her lifespan. So I’ve decided to use that name for my new truck and that has completely changed the search.

Just as I wasn’t looking for an RV back in 2008, but ‘Miranda’, I am now not looking for a truck, but ‘Moya.’ This green Ranger looks more like a Moya to me than did the older white one…

I can’t believe that I have less than 48 hours to go before I leave for Calgary and the pickings are so slim! I still have the topperless ’94 at the dealership to fall back on, but it’s less than ideal.

Appendage crossing has resumed!