As I previously mentioned, I had my civic for fourteen years! (Technically, thirteen and a half, but who’s counting?!) And in my “fourteen” years, I’ve had many adventures too! Join me on a trip down memory lane as a tribute to my very first car!
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Me & my new car circa September 1998!
(Note: that is a pen I'm chewing on...) |
WARNING: This post is a bit very lengthy.
TRAVEL:
Of the many, many trips that I’ve taken in this car, here are a few of the more notable ones:
-Two trips down to Orlando, FL to meet up with my family at Disney World. One was alone and the other was with my friend, Jenny. We drove all night from Blacksburg, VA. That was the night I decided that I was not cut out for night driving. That was also the first night I actually bought coffee. I think I had two sips of it…
-Multiple trips to Cherry Hill, NJ and New York, NY to visit my dear friend Shanna – typically accompanied by my other best friend, Tamara. A two hour drive to Cherry Hill was nothing from Columbia, MD. New York was only four.
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| Me & Tamara in New York circa 2009! |
-More trips than I can count from Blacksburg, VA to Columbia, MD and northern VA.
-Countless trips into Baltimore to “get lost”. Those were the high school days. We would just drive around and take any random turn that we fancied, and then we found our way back home. Hence the term “get lost”.
-A trip to Georgia for some peaches a regatta while I was in college. More on said trip later…
-A couple trips to Harrisburg, NC from Blacksburg, VA to visit my Dad and Grandma when my Dad was living there and taking care of her. On one of those trips we actually headed all the way down to Charleston, SC to pick up Eiger - my Dad’s dog. He was the cutest puppy ever and turned out to be the best dog ever. (He recently passed, but there is not a day that goes by that he is not thought of happily.) I didn’t want to go back to school that day. It was a spring afternoon in North Carolina. Those afternoons are nearly impossible to beat.
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| ♥ you, Eiger. Cutest.Puppy.Ever. |
-Multiple trips to Lynchburg, VA from Blacksburg, VA to visit Jenny. Southern summer afternoons in the country are also hard to beat. Jenny’s Mom always had the best iced tea. And there were two rocking chairs on the porch in the shade. We stayed there for hours and just talked. At night, more stars shone in the sky than you could imagine. I loved it there.
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| Me & Jenny at a Tech game circa 2006! |
-One trip to the Outer Banks, NC – again to meet the fam.
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James & his friend on the way to NC in the back of my car circa 2008!
We had such a fun ride down together. Amy sat shot gun! |
-A trip to West Virginia to meet up with my Mom for our girl’s weekend.
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| Mom & I atop Cooper's Rock circa 2010. |
-And, of course, multiple trips from Columbus, OH to Maryland. (The most recent trip was taken in September 2011. It was then that my Uncle Ricky, a very reputable mechanic, said that I should limit my driving in this car to “in-town” only… That was the first time I had ever wondered if I was going to be able to make it back safely.)
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| Me & Amy on said last trip to MD in my car circa 2011. |
MECHANICAL:
I have been fortunate enough to not have too many terrible (read: expensive) mechanical issues with my car. I’ve had the normal maintenance issues, but other than the few listed below I’ve been very lucky.
-My stepdad took my car to have get new tires put on. When the service technicians at the shop were done, they were backing my car out of the garage...with the door open. Needless to say, my driver's side door hit the side of the garage and pretty much folded like an accordion. My tire change took a few days longer than anticipated. I had to borrow my brother's car, and from that point on there was always a little drop or two of rain that would come in on the driver's side when it was wet outside.
-On the previously mentioned trip to Georgia for our collegiate regatta, our cox was driving our car while me and another teammate were sleeping. She fell asleep at the wheel and hit the van that had the rest of the team in it. We were all safe, fortunately. The driver of the van did a bit of quick thinking and got in her way before she hit the guard rail. It's scary how fast something can happen.
-My radio display lights have been out for years. They randomly come on very dimly lit, and then they're off for an unknown amount of time. I've never figured it out but I've always chalked it up to my car gettin' older.
-My brother, Travis, and my cousin, Jamie, drove down to Blacksburg, VA to visit. We were headed to go tubing down the New River when out of nowhere my exhaust manifold broke off, hit the bottom of my car, and rolled to the side of the road. Afterwards, my car sounded
SO LOUD it was embarrassing. We didn't get to go tubing, but we did get to see the mechanic. We are all still laughing about that visit!
-Speaking of exhaust manifolds, at my last wedding dress fitting all was good, so I put my wedding dress in the back of my car. As I left, my exhaust...something...was dragging behind me, producing sparks as I drove away. I drove to yet another mechanic. I remember thinking how ironic that I have my wedding dress in the back of my car as it is hoisted above so that the mechanics could take a look at what happened. The likelihood of this happening on this day is slim to none! Fortunately they fixed everything, and I left with a perfectly good muffler and a perfectly good wedding dress!
RUN IN’S WITH THE LAW:
Now, I would just like to say that I am a law abiding citizen. However, I may or may not have gotten a few (as in more than 0 less than 10) tickets (speeding, rolling through a stop sign, red light tickets, driving without shoes, etc.). That’s all I have to say about that.
MOVING
My Honda has been packed to the brim on multiple occasions. It was always on moving day when I thought it would be nice to have a larger car and/or truck, but I always made do with what I had. And my car helped move me to multiple locations:
-My first move from home (Columbia, MD) to college at Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA).
-Multiple moves in and around Blacksburg, VA throughout college.
-My move to Northern VA for my first post-college job.
-My move to a new place in Northern VA.
-My most recent move to Columbus, OH.
Each and every time, my Honda has successfully transported me and my precious cargo (read: Bunny) to our next stop. And while it may have taken us multiple trips, it got done, and that's all we could have asked for!
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| Precious cargo. |
MISHAPS & SHENANIGANS:
-There was one time in high school that I was driving down 32 to take Shanna home from hanging out. It was later at night – maybe around midnight or so. My sweater flew out of my window. (I will spare you the details.) I pulled over, spotted it in my side mirror, and got out of my car to go and get it. It was that night that I learned that objects in mirror are further than they appear…
-Another time I had a full car and was driving some high school friends home from school. I was exiting route 32 to get onto Cedar Lane when I lost control and did a complete 360. I have no idea what happened, but Tamara will always remember that day as, ‘I knew you didn’t know what was going on when I saw the look on your face…’
-Then there was that time when Tamara and I took the grassy yield at the four way stop. I had always wanted to do that, and it was totally worth it.
-Adventures on Home Road. This road would get so dark at night that if you turned your car lights off and put your hand in front of you, you literally could not see anything. I stopped on that road once with Tamara in the car and opened her passenger window. It was too dark for her, but I laughed hysterically for a long time about that trip!
(NOTE: All of my “irresponsibility” ended in high school…I think.)
-Last but not least, there was last fall when I shoved two bales of hay in my car for the grass seed we were putting down in our yard. I thought I’d be able to fit both of the bales in my trunk until I saw that only one would fit. I ended up putting the other bale in my backseat. (Remember, this civie was a civic coupe – meaning only two doors!) I am still finding little hay bits in and around the car…and we still don’t have grass.
My car has been so reliable, so fun, so undeniably me, and I am so fortunate to have had such a good run with such a good car. It's kind of sad to know that this car will no longer be my trusty transportation. It's kind of sad to let go of the only car I've ever known, but I am definitely excited for a new car. And, really, I'm not getting rid of any of the memories, just the car itself.
The memories will stay with me and all of my fellow passengers forever!
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| My car - 14 years later - circa January 2012. |
