There is a bit of sadness in me as I write this and realize that my longest relationship besides my family, has come to an end today. Now I don't usually get attached to "things", i.e. a car, but my little car, which I referred to many times as the "Silver Bullet" saw me through a lot of my adult life. Naturally we bonded! The day my father told me he would need his vehicle back, and I'd have to buy a car, I was devastated, afterall I'd only just graduated from college and was scraping pennies with my first "real" paycheck. But I sucked it up and 2 days after Christmas 1997, I went down to Spreen Honda in Loma Linda, walked in, told the nice salesman exactly what I wanted and exactly what I wanted my payments to be, and just how much I had to put down! It was pretty painless... and the day I wrote my last check for that car, I cheered and celebrated about not having a car payment! Fast forward to today, 14 years after I purchased the car, 6 years after I paid it off, 161,000 miles later, I was beginning to think that a new car just wasn't even in my near future, no matter how much discussion and planning was done with my hubby! Not because he didn't want me to have a new car, we just have had other things that have taken priority. Besides, when your car is paid for, gets good gas mileage, and still only costs $25 to fill up... who wouldn't accept that deal?! But recently, in the past 3 months little things have started to happen to my car, and we were calling on our trusty neighbor to help us out so we could avoid costly labor rates. Which we thought this seemed like a pretty good bandaid, we'd call on him, he'd tell us what we needed, we get it, he'd fix the car, and we'd all share a cold brew afterwards! Then yesterday as I went out to start my car after work, the little silver bullet was hesitant to start. When I got home, I told Kevin. We had already done a good bit of research but we wanted to test drive all our options before making a decision, which we had planned to go test drive this weekend. Little did I know when we left the house this morning that I actually would be saying goodbye to the car that has been to Mexico, Vegas, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma,Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, and the Carolinas with me! This wasn't just a car, this was a vehicle that put my dreams into motion!
I have an abundance of memories that were made during the time I had my first "new" car, it saw me through most of my adult life! And I always think things are sweeter when you are the one responsible for writing the check and making it happen! After a few hours of hunting, test driving, and negotiating Kevin and I had picked a new car out. We came home to get the Silver Bullet to take it to its new home, where it would most likely just be sold for parts, whichever ones still work. The car hesitated to start again. If this car had a soul, it probably would know its days were numbered! So once again, we called upon Cptn. Kerkman to help us out, he said it was just the battery, so we jump-started the car and were on our way to seal the deal. I looked down at my gas gauge and realized I had less than a 1/4 tank of gas, thought, "should I fill it up?", but Kevin said, "No, let's just get it to the dealership." So we cruised down to Honda Cars of Rock Hill, found our guy again, and let him take the Silver Bullet behind the curtain to determine its worth. Kevin and I always predict the worst and hope for the best, and when Steve came back with the offer, we both almost burst into laughter. Not because it was a joke of an offer, but rather because it was double the amount we were crossing our fingers for. So a final offer was made, accepted, and the paperwork was put into motion. A few signatures and 2 hours later we rode home in a new vehicle. Now I was a bit sad, but I have to say I'm excited to see where these wheels take us, and can't wait for the road trips and adventures we have in the new, Bigger Bullet!" (Yep, I picked silver again!)
