James Wilkinson had a virtual stranger in the cab of his truck. He was taking the guy to a cabin on the river and pulled up to what Wilkinson called a “gap,” or a wire fence.

The gap was closed and in order for the truck to pass through the gap, somebody had to get out of the truck and open it.

Wilkinson, with his foot on the brake, wasn’t about to get out and open the fence, drive his truck through, and then get back out and close the fence.

“I looked over at him and said, ‘The driver doesn’t get out to open the gap,'” Wilkinson recalls.

At that point, the stranger chuckled, got out of the truck and opened the gap.

The stranger, as the story goes, was Ted Williams — the Hall of Famer who is the last player to ever hit .400 in the Major Leagues (.407). After a long bout with heart problems and multiple strokes, Williams passed away Friday.

After his death, Wilkinson and Dallas County Probate Judge recalled the time they spent with Williams, who made multiple visits to Dallas County to hunt and fish.

“We got along just fine after that,” said Wilkinson of the fence-opening episode. “Somebody told me that me and Ted hit it off after that. The way I see it, he puts his britches on the same way I do.”

Jones didn’t get to spend as much time with Williams as Wilkinson did, but Jones does remember hearing Williams talk about baseball.

“He told us one time that he could see the seams on the ball as soon as it left the pitcher’s hand,” Jones recalls. “He was an amazing ball player and he was a prince of a guy.”

Wilkinson, it so happens, became somewhat of an idle to Williams. On his first trip to Portland — a hunting camp in Dallas County — Williams went with renowned hunter Ben Rogers Lee for a morning turkey hunt. They called all morning and not one turkey came.

A little later in the morning, Wilkinson decided to help.

“I heard a turkey gobbling and I started calling him,” he said.

According to Jones, Wilkinson called the turkey “right into Ted Williams’ lap.”

It was the first time Williams had killed a turkey, and after that, Wilkinson said the Hall of Famer didn’t care too much about hunting.

The baseball legend that he was, Williams didn’t talk much baseball during his visits to Dallas County, either.

“He mostly liked to talk about hunting and fishing,” Wilkinson said.

But Williams did captivate a small hunting audience — which included Wilkinson — during one of his visits.

“[Williams] told us that during his early years, he didn’t hit a ball that he didn’t put on his bat with his eyes,” Wilkinson said.

In other words, Williams said he watched the baseball from the time it left the pitcher’s hand to the time it made contact with his bat.

“That, to me, was incredible,” Wilkinson said. “He had such great eyes.”