Destination Unknown

I love driving my car.* My first car was a 1974 yellow convertible Karman Ghia.  The four of us ( my brother, sister, and friend) would cram into the car every morning with the Violent Femmes or Madonna blaring, the top down, and if cold, the heat toasting our toes to get to school.  The drive would take about 30 minutes and I always imagined that one day we would be channeling Fred and Wilma by using our feet to propel the car.  You could see the pavement through the floorboards. My dad finally figured out that the car was probably better suited to being revamped as a potential collector's item rather than as a car for a sixteen year old.

Thus entered my second car, a 1970 blue bug that I drove off and on throughout the rest of high school and during my last few years of college.   Aside from a few fires, the big one being an engine fire that a nice older gentlemen in a RV put out with his fire extinguisher, it was relatively safe and got me to the places I needed to go school or work within city limits  I could fix it with my bare hands.  But I always dreamed of a day when I would have a reliable vehicle that I could take farther.

The first car that I owned in my name, 1994 Red Honda Civic, took me far and fulfilled that dream to go farther.  I drove that car over 278,000 miles including an 11,000 mile cross country trip one summer.  I finally sold it this past November for $500 dollars. When I sold it, the engine was still reliable and the air conditioner worked. The windows didn't roll down and when it rained, you could swim in the pools that were left behind in the floorboard.  I still laugh about the day my friend caught me bailing my car out at work. I am sure that I could be suffering from some illness induced by mold growth from that car.  It was time to let it go and bring reliability back into my life.  My new car now does that.  Now road trip possibilities unfold only limited by time and money.


*I diverge from my typical posts about work life as today was a true play day.