The End of an Era

My apologies for not posting in almost a month.  Well, I'm not that sorry because I have been outside running and bike riding and enjoying the warm weather we've been having!  We Dallasites deserve some nice weather after all we've had to endure this winter.  Fingers crossed...we are over the winter and on to spring.

So to the post at hand...

The End of an Era
There once was a boy named Will.  When he turned 15 years old he got a Blazer for his birthday.  Less than a year later, he sold the Blazer because it basically blew up.  When he turned 16 years old, he got a Jeep Grand Cherokee '95.  Ah the joy!  He had it all.

He loved his Jeep and cherished every moment with her (yes, she was a female car).  When I met Will, he was 21 and his beloved Jeep was still kickin'.  When he went to law school, we prayed "oh please, just make it through a few more years"... then after that we moved to Nebraska and prayed "oh please, just make it one more year"...and finally we moved to Dallas and she was still a goin'.  By this time, she was in pretty bad shape, ie: no A/C, spotty brakes and transmission, ceiling fabric was falling in, tires were mis-matched... you get the picture.  I begged Will to get a new car and he again prayed "Just make it to 200,000 miles".

And she did.

You are probably thinking, 'how did you get a picture of this at exactly 200,000 miles?' We drove around the block three times with camera in hand.  *Shout out to my mom's Jeep, it has over 200,000 miles, too.*

The Proud Father

So, how much longer can this *lucky (or, what I call stupid) streak* last?  Turns out, quite a while. The transmission was spotty to the point of not being able to go on the highway, and Will developed a trick to make it switch gears (she had quit shifting automatically at this point).

Finally, one fateful day in January, Will called me at work and said "Do you want to go buy a car tonight?" Turns out that on his way to work that day, the transmission trick quit working and his car wouldn't go over 30 mph. Slight problem.  So that night, we got Will's new car (that will hopefully last him another 10 years and 200,000+ miles).  For those of you doing the math, the Jeep was a '95 and it finally quit running in 2011 = 15+ years.

We went to CarMax and Will drove exactly two cars, a new Jeep Grand Cherokee and a new Four Runner. He picked the Four Runner and we bought it - our first car purchase together, well, ever for that matter.  Does this make us grownups now?

We donated the Jeep to charity and the picked her up from our house one day after work. Will was not there when they took her away, I think it was better this way.

She was a great car and we appreciate her lasting so long, goodbye, Jeep.  This post is for you.