Darrell Caldwell Jr. never got to say goodbye to his first love — a 1972 Peterbilt semi owned by his grandfather during the 1990s. Nearly three decades later, the Texan was reunited with the big rig fondly called “The Engine Room.”
“I would just sit in it for hours in the blistering sun,” Caldwell Jr. reportedly said. “Sweating, imagining, you know, going somewhere, actually driving it, not being able to see over that hood.”
When visiting his grandfather, he’d respectfully make his hellos and dart for the truck with “The Engine Room” painted on the side. One day, he turned the corner and the truck was gone. His grandfather sold the rig to buy a newer model.
“I was devastated. Pretty much my first love. It was gone. Like, I didn’t get to say goodbye. I didn’t get that chance, that closure,” he reportedly said. “It was like one of those deals where, you know, life goes on, you have to, you know, get over it.”
A boy never quite gets over losing his first love. Caldwell firmly believed the more than 50-year-old Peterbilt found its way to a semi graveyard, stripped and sold off for parts.
He made a post in a Facebook group called Little Window Peterbilt and added an old photo of The Engine Room with a young Darrell Caldwell Jr. leaning against her wearing his Sunday best. He was stunned when a trucker shared a photo of the Engine Room as a fixer-upper.
“It’s almost like seeing a ghost, right? I dropped my phone. I was like, where is this truck? How long ago was this picture taken? Like, who has it? So now I’m in the process of hunting for it like,” Caldwell reportedly queried.
After a barrage of electronic messages, Caldwell learned someone in Baton Rouge, LA, had sold it. But a pair of Minnesota truckers — Nick Nelson and Charlie Parvi — reached out.
“If you haven’t found that truck yet, I know where it’s sitting,” Nelson reported messaged.
The truckers invited Caldwell to join them at an annual farm party, where he could be reunited with The Engine Room.
“I just lost it. I couldn’t hold it anymore. I was trying to fight it because I didn’t want, you know, people to see me emotional about it and crying about it. But at that moment, I just, I just couldn’t hold it back anymore,” Caldwell reportedly said.
Around him were about 10 rugged truckers wearing Harley shirts. There wasn’t a dry eye to be found.
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