Good Bye Old Friend

It was a sad day, a day I knew would eventually come but not so soon, the day I sold my Cherokee. I still remember when my dad called saying he found a replacement for "the opaz" and that it was a Jeep Cherokee, I was so excited I could barely stand it.

I've got some great memories revolving around this car that I'll never forget. Cramming it full of my roommates and Tech Crew friends to go to Friendly's for ice cream (back when I could actually eat a 5-scoop Reese's Pieces sundae)... Making the 30 mile trip to Geneseo to see Rachelle (and the other g-hoes) over and over again... Having to push-start it at Wegmans when the starter motor failed... Tying our first Christmas tree to the top to bring it home... Getting the windows tinted so dark that I couldn't see anything that first night after I got it done... Getting a ticket on route 81 for that same tint (the only ticket I ever got in that car)... Putting hundreds of thumbtacks into the headliner to keep it from falling down on my head; I'd find thumbtacks in my hoods, down my pants and in my shoes... Getting into an accident (thanks Dave) while leaving Taco Bell; they got flat-bedded away while I drove home... Playing Tetris with Claire's nursery furniture to get it all home in one trip... Arguing with Rachelle about whether it was safe enough to drive Claire around in...

I had been on the market for a more family friendly car for a while now, but not really actively looking; I was waiting for a car to fall into my lap. A few weeks ago one fell right in. My dad's friend's girlfriend's mom bought a new car on a whim and needed to get rid of her old one. My dad deemed it acceptable so we bought it.

The suitable replacement ended up being a 1999 Subaru Legacy Outback. It has just about the same amount of internal space as the Jeep, which was important to me and had all the amenities we wanted: air conditioning, automatic transmission, all-wheel drive, a headliner, and a quiet ride. It even has heated leather seats! Basically now we have 2 cars that Rachelle can drive and that we can take on trips. I taught her to drive a manual transmission years ago (I have a picture of her doing it on my desk at work), but that's not something you can be successful at once every few years. Tooling around town is one thing in the Jeep, but on the highway it could be a little loud.

When my dad informed me that the Outback was a good car and worth the money he said I should get on selling mine immediately. So I cleaned it up, shot some pictures and started with an ad on Craigslist. Within an hour or so of listing it I had a few phone calls and was showing it to a couple in a Wegmans parking lot. They loved it and said they wanted it. Stupidly I didn't get a deposit. Days later I got a phone call saying that it was going to cost too much to insure and that they were backing out. I then called the second guy who bought it that night. He's an RIT grad student who was specifically looking for an old 4 wheel drive car with a small engine. It makes me happy that this car will be driving around RIT again.