Deborah and Gary Vantilburg, of Wapakoneta, are the third owners of this 1976 Ford Ranger XLT, which came out of Ashboro, N.C.
WAPAKONETA — Deborah Vantilburg is happy her husband Gary isn’t one to say, “I told you so.”
When he mentioned to Deborah that he was thinking about selling their 1968 Mercury Cougar so he could buy a truck, it didn’t go very well at first.
“I was so unhappy about it,” Deborah said. “We had the Cougar for eight years. It wasn’t anything special, but it was a good car … our car. He had done some work on it … overhauled the engine and restored a lot of it back to the original. It was fun taking it to car shows.”
But, as Deborah says, “I gave in.”
And she’s glad she did.
Six years ago, they hooked up with a salesman from a classic car dealership in Cincinnati and bought a 1976 Ford F-100 Ranger XLT. They are the third owners of the vehicle, which came out of Ashboro, North Carolina.
Gary’s done a little work to it — replacing the bench seat with bucket seats and doing some minor touch-ups — but mostly the truck was well-kept.
In mid-May, they attended the Ford F-100 Grand National Show in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The three-day event is like a slice of heaven for Ford truck enthusiasts. It is billed as the largest classic Ford pick-up truck event in the world.
On display are classic Ford trucks, 1996 and older. A huge swap meet features just about everything a trucker could want.
The Vantilburgs have attended the show four-straight years. The sight-seeing, finding new restaurants and visiting old favorites are just part of the good time.
“What we really enjoy is the Friday cruise,” Deborah said. “A line of trucks will cruise through the Smokey Mountains National Park, then into Gatlinburg and back to Pigeon Forge.”
The trip to the Smokey Mountains is about 7 ½ hours with a few stops from their home in Wapakoneta.
“It’s a good way to start the summer,” she said.
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