Ranger Bob One Surpasses Milestone, Does Something Statistically Impossible

San Angelo, Texas - Ranger Bob One is not your ordinary truck. Now, I know on the surface he might appear to be a 1995 red Ford Ranger that looks like every other Ford Ranger, but having experienced Ranger Bob One, I can tell you he is not your ordinary truck. Let me sight three very specific examples.

(The name Ranger Bob One comes from my dad who tells me there was a tv character one upon a time named Ranger Bob. The "One" comes from the fact that my dad also owns a Ford Ranger, which is named Ranger Bob Two.)

Example #1: One year ago I had two flat tires within six minutes of each other. This is something I have documented and mentioned here. What I didn't mention is that this happened less than one half mile from my house. One can argue this was chance, but one could also argue that perhaps Ranger Bob One was aware of the distance...

Is this a ludicrous claim? Can a pile of metal and screws and moving parts actually think?!?! Most of you have seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It is not out of the question.

Example #2: Last year I drove Ranger Bob One from where I am now for Turkey Day (San Angelo) back down to ol' Waring. The distance was approximately 180 miles. Now, I like many other males, talk to the vehicles I drive and encourage them to do well. That night, having left San Angelo around 10:00 p.m. I asked RB1 to get me home safely.

I kid you not, at mile 179 4/5 my clutch went out. I was topping the hill from which I could see my house at the bottom. I simply left RB1 in neutral and coasted into my driveway. I turned off the key and sat their in silence simply befuddled at the fact that this truck decided to break down less than 200 yards from my house. This, no less, after driving 180 miles in the dark of night.

Example #3: This brings us to yesteday. The two previous examples can be dismissed I suppose to chance. But what happened to me yesterday is almost unbelievable. It is the kind of event that takes a vehicle and launches it into the stratosphere of Legend.

I was quite excited because I knew on my way to San Angelo that RB1 was going to top the 200,000 mile mark. This is always exciting and always a big deal. So, when RB1 rolled over between Adamsville and Izoro, Texas, I pulled off to the side of the road, took a few pictures of the odometer for my dad, gave Ranger Bob One a congratulatory pat on the dashboard and continued on.

Here's the crazy part. Fifty miles later, I looked down to see the odometer read 200,023 miles. Huh? I continued to watch and for the next fifty miles that damned odometer didn't budge an inch.

It was broken...

I stared curiously at the truck for a while after I got to San Angleo. Machine? Or maybe, just maybe, this thing has a spirit. I did the math of it. I divided 200,000 by 23 and got 0.01 percent. In other words, the chances that Ranger Bob One's odometer would stop working within 23 miles of 200,000 is almost statistically impossible.

Unless, Ranger Bob One was aware of the milestone he had just crossed, like an old man dying three days after his hundreth birthday.

What can say? I am still perplexed by this one. In the meantime, Ranger Bob One is still rolling, forever 200,023 miles under his belt.

That's the story of my life...