Contrary to my statement in the video, this Explorer Sport is about 20 years old, which is even more incredible. How can any vehicle get so clapped-out in just 20 years? This baby is a hot-wired, broken-windowed, strung-together flivver if ever there was one.
Will you love me when my flivver is a wreck?
I found it June 11 along a road just a mile from home. It was not abandoned. The license plate was still on it; two and a half hours later, I came back after shopping, and the Explorer Sport was gone.
We had encountered this same Explorer Sport twice before. The first time was during our early morning location-scouting for Danish TV. It was just off the road; we surely must have awakened the sleeper-driver as we went farther into the canyon. Upon our return, he was apparently freshening up behind a creosote bush because no one was to be seen. But a yellow dog was romping in the road.
Two days later we returned at daybreak for our big shoot with the Chrysler Airflow. The Explorer Sport was at a turnaround way back in the canyon. (There were also people sleeping in a much newer Buick Encore; they were in a flat area some 200 yards in from the main road.)
We went about our work, and finally around 8.00 a.m. had a coffee break with both the Airflow and my Jetta SportWagen, a.k.a. the support vehicle, grouped together between the Buick’s location and the main road. As we were about to pack up and resume work, this time for drone shots, the Explorer Sport wobbled and clattered out of the canyon.
I waved to the driver, and he came to a stop. He was just as tattered as his Explorer. The dog was in the second row.
“Sorry if we woke you up,” I said.
He shrugged and muttered something about it not mattering. The dog thrust its head over the driver’s left shoulder for a better look at us. The breed was hard to determine: a Labrador pit bull something.
We should have shared a banana and some orange juice with the driver. (We didn’t have much for the dog.) I guess we were too much in awe of to think of victuals for the driver and provender for the dog.
Then they continued on their way, turning right on the main road and heading into town.
Soon after, the Buick started up, and we saw two people in it as that little SUV made its way out and also made a right onto the main road.
Encountering the flivver again just 12 days later, I had to make a U-turn and get photos.
Never let a flivver elude you!
I hope all of them are doing all right. These desert nights are getting hotter as summer approaches, and sleeping out in a car would be tough.