Cars along the way ...

Today, I have been thinking about the cars I've had in my time ... and so I've compiled a list:
1) 1967 Chevy long box Pick-up truck
2) 1974 Plymouth Duster (two door, sports back)
3) 1993 Ford Aerostar XLT extended length
4) 1994 Chevy Lumina Van
5) 2003 Toyota Sienna
6) 2001 Toyota Corolla (four door)

There were other vehicles along the way like Mom's 1979 Chrysler Cordoba, and a variety of old beaters at the Golf Course I worked at for 10 years. But those six vehicles are those I've shared the journey with since I learned to drive 22 years ago ...

The 67 Chevy Pick up was my first vehicle. It was a beater. It was blue (multi-coloured from the many touch ups with whatever blue paint was handy !!) with a white roof on the cab. It was a fun old beast to drive, but it ended its life in a puff of smoke (literally) when it burned in a friend's driveway outside of Stratford one spring day ... A few days earlier the driver's side door had popped open while I was tooling down the 401 in Toronto, so I had bolted the door closed to prevent a repeat - when the fire started I spent the first 10 seconds trying to get out the driver's side door BEFORE a little voice said - "other door idiot !!" A leaking fuel pump and a short on the starter did my truck in ... it was a sad day, but then a week later the Insurance Company cut a cheque ...

The 74 Duster was a favourite vehicle of mine. It had belonged to an elderly friend in New Hamburg Ontario. He bought it new and it had less than 27 000 ORIGINAL miles on it when he sold it to me. I drove that car for years ... I took it to BC in 1991, when my floor mates didn't think it would get past Thunder Bay - it did !! I took pictures of it sitting in front of each Provinical sign!! It was a great car ... and in 1993 we sold it for MORE then I bought it for !!

In 1993, we bought the Aerostar - whose story is farther down in the blog ...

In 2003 when M got a full time job in Brandon, we bought our first second vehicle ... a 94 Lumina Van ... it was pretty ... but ... well, it had problems ... The malfunctioning electric locks that left me stranded INSIDE the van once too often were NOT fun ... It spent two years with us before we traded it in on the 2003 Sienna van we bought and continue to drive ...

My feelings for our Toyotas could be a blog entry unto themselves ... As much as I enjoyed the old cars I've had - the Toyotas we currently own (even the new one yesterday) have won my heart ... They are a fine vehicle in every way ...

At the end of the day though, a car is a car and it is a simply a means of transportation - but you do get kind of attached to them after awhile ... and sometimes you miss them when they're gone ... It's like the stories almost every family has about a Model T or a Model A they once owned ...

A concluding side note to leave with you to ponder is this: ... the same year I bought my first car - the 67 Chev pick up, I also bought my first mountain bike ... I've been through six vehicles BUT I'm still tooling around on the SAME bike - it groans and creaks - but it runs ... maybe there's a lesson there for ALL of us ... do we dare think it??