Good-bye old red Jeep

Another milestone - it's finally time to say good-bye to the old red Jeep. The first car I ever chose for myself - and then had to battle with L over driving it. Because it was cooler than the one he had :-)

We bought it in 1993 and just weeks later I had a near miss while driving on thick ice - back in Oklahoma. I slid through an intersection right between two cars; one was going N, the other S, I was headed W. Whew! That was scary.

This is the car that took us on vacations in New Mexico and Arizona and Utah and Colorado year after year until the kids complained. Couldn't we go somewhere else for a change? We went into Canyon de Chelly in the spring one year when the ice and snow had thawed but the water was still running deep - and promptly got water into the car, through the air vents. There probably still is a bit of reservation dirt in the carpet and floor mats.

This is the car that we drove from Oklahoma to California with two dogs in the very back and one child and lots of suitcases on the backseat. It took several days, we had to stop in certain cities because that's where we had reservations for us and the dogs at specific kennels - all very well planned in advance.

This is the car that drove kids to school, to band practice, to daycare, to karate.

This is the car that went through 3 radiators in one year, one came pre-damaged from the factory, the next one - well, who knows, mystery damage? We didn't have to pay for that one. The third one finally took and it's still in there.

After 13 years of driving it, it was time for a new car. On the mechanic's recommendation, we hung on to it and waited for Henry to get his license in the summer of 2006. He drove it for almost a year.

And this is the car that took him to the Golden Gate Bridge.

It's been sitting in the driveway since. We tried, half-heartedly, selling it a time or two. It didn't work and we obviously weren't ready.

Now it's time. Today we are donating it to Mission Solano.

It's time - finally - and it's a good thing. Still, I'll miss seeing the car in the driveway every day. And in my mind I can still hear the roar of the muffler (it has a "guy" muffler and a "guy" horn) when Henry drove off to school.