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Betty
Born: October 25, 1995
Toyota Land Cruiser, HDJ 80 GS, 4.2 Liter Turbo Diesel, Land
Rover Recovery Vehicle, Named in honor of Jim’s Grandmother,
Betty Wentz |
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Well, to this point
I can say that my life was pretty easy. Ten years
ago I was born in Japan. My registration certificate says
I weighed in at 4,760 lbs. Can't say
that I remember much about Japan as I moved to England shortly
after birth. For the first couple of years I lived just south
of the Lake District in the small market town of Padiham. In
1999, I moved to the village of New Longton where I've
spent the past six years serving as Doreen and Graham Dawson's
smart car. It was a cushy job which only required me to drive
1,500 miles in the past eighteen months. The rest of the time
I just relaxed at home, soaking up the fresh air and enjoying
the lush green countryside. Life was good.
In late August things
took a drastic turn for the worst. One morning, I'm awoken
by this strange fellow who's
poking and prodding under my bonnet and pushing all my buttons
and riding me hard down the motorway. A couple of days go
by and the next thing you know I'm being loaded onto
a flatbed truck and carted off. That's the last I saw
of the Dawson's and the last I saw of my relaxing life.
Since
then I've been completely torn apart and rebuilt.
My long lazy days have been replaced by hard slogging through
deep mud, climbing over large rocks, and wading through cold
rivers. What's worse, I'm now told that this
is all prep for a multi-year expedition around the world
where I'm the porter. Are you kidding me?? They describe
this as an “excellent idea” and the "perfect
challenge." That's because I'll be doing
all the heavy lifting – forging deep rivers, climbing
steep dunes, clawing through thick mud. All with 6,000 pounds
of equipment and supplies in tow. Nobody bothered to ask
me "Why on earth would I ever want to do that?" I
would have said forget it. I'm staying here with the
Dawson's. |
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