He contends that he never forgets a truck.” My dad and I were coming home from Barrie and stopped in Kaladar to look at a truck that was for sale. Just by looking at a back bumper, I knew that I’d seen the truck before. I asked the owner about it, and sure enough, it was a truck I’d seen three years earlier at Embrun.” There aren’t too many people who have instant-truck recall but Blake knows his stuff. “People call me to tell me about a Cruiser they’ve seen and I inevitably know about it,” he says, “I keep my eyes wide open because I never know when I’ll come across something I want or need.”

Blake and his father, Blake Townsend, Sr. have been building and restoring trucks in their 18 by 27 foot garage, hoist-delete, for the past 15 years. They are never stuck for parts since there are 14 trucks in what Blake, Jr. calls a “Land Cruiser graveyard at the cottage.” He explains, “I bought a Land Cruiser one week and started a parts collection the next.” He currently has two trucks on the road, the FJ45 and a 1975 FJ40 that’s had a 350 Chev engine transplanted and his father is working on a 1975 Willys pick-up.

Blake glances to the parking lot where the lunch-time crowd have formed a circle around the bright red 4X4 beacon. A man in dry-waller’s garb comes in and catches the pride in Blake’s eye asking, “Is that a new truck Toyota’s bringing out?” To be sure, the truck only had 400 km on it but it is 25 years old.

Just like the eager kids at a candy store, the adult admirers are pressing their noses against the front hood, hoping to catch a glimpse of the big block Chevy engine with the Edelbrock intake. They leave a row smudgy nose prints. But as someone who builds beautiful trucks and is used to the admiration, Blake shrugs and with a casual swipe of his sleeve, the smudges disappear.