Wednesday, July 18, 2018

This week I am spending more time in the car than usual!  My son who didn’t go to debate camp is doing a 2 week acting camp and I’m driving him there and picking him up and running all of the errands that I’ve been putting off since Pia arrived it seems.  

I love my current car and I’ve had it for a little over 2 years and it still seems new to me! I bought it used (as we always do now) and it is now 6 years old.  It’s my first black car and it’s a Dodge SUV.  It has all the nice features like bluetooth, a sunroof (my first!), heated and cooling seats – basically everything I never knew I needed!  I keep it as clean as possible and try to take good care of it because in our family we keep cars a LONG time.  

Before this car, I drove the same awesome white minivan for 11 years, people!  But, we will get to that… 

In my 30 years (what?) of driving, I don’t think I’ve had very many cars.  I also still remember each and every car my family had as I was growing up and maybe I should do that post another day!  

My very first car cost $800 and I found it myself at age 16 and begged my Dad for it.  It was exactly like the photo below except is was tan.  It was a Plymouth Champ 4 speed stick shift so I had to learn to drive it first!  That was an adventure!

I drove that all through high school but I went to college without a car.  I think it was my junior year that I made the argument that I needed a car again to get ready for student teaching.  My second car looked like the photo below except it was a darker grey.  I don’t remember it much because I only had it for maybe 2 years and I don’t think I liked it very much. 

I graduated from college and couldn’t wait to buy a new car – yes, I think I bought a brand new car.  It was a light blue 4 door Honda Civic.  I would’ve kept it longer than 3 years, but a lady pulled out in front of me and it was totaled.  

So, I upgraded to a sporty red 2 door Honda civic and I guess I had that for close to 10 years.  It was a peppy manual transmission again and I loved driving it!  I had this when I met my husband and he drove this when I had twins to transport and I drove his Suburban for a couple of years.  

I tried really hard to avoid the mom-mobile minivan by choosing this baby next when my husband and I decided the red Honda didn’t fit our family of 4 lifestyle anymore.  I wanted a white car and found this used and only kept it for 6 months. With 3 year old twin boys I finally admitted to myself and my husband that I needed a minivan with sliding doors and the space it offered with the ability to fold all the seats down into the floorboards.  This was a Chevy trailblazer and it drove like a truck.  

So, I traded it in for this bad boy below.  I loved the fact that I was high up but it drove like a car and was a much smoother ride.  What a good car for us!  I should’ve gotten it sooner! It went everywhere – Disney, D.C., Michigan – everywhere!  I still feel nostalgic about this car and I traded it in for my current car and have seen it around town a couple of times.  

So, that’s it for me.  I definitely like a car that sits higher off the ground and can’t see myself back in a sedan really, but you never know!  This was was a fun post to write and I hope you enjoyed it, too!

Amy