My Jeep

When our daughter was still in High School, I probably had an early mid-life crisis (maybe it wasn't early, i was about 57. Time for a new second car and I wanted a Jeep Wrangler.. 5 speed manual no less!!.. Brand new, we drove it to the Outer Banks to surprise her!!( She was staying with friends the week before we got there).. She and her friend spent the entire 7 days learning to drive a stick shift.. Up and down the road to the beach, night after night, grinding gears.. Surprise no one complained!!
Fast-forward 13 years, still have my jeep.. now about 90,000 hard-earned miles.. many trips up the beach north of Corolla, many times up and down our road in lieu of a snowplow.. many trips with our daughter i don't even want to know about!! One i did hear about was her trip to visit her college room-mate.. left the top down while they visited downtown and came back to 4" of water in the Jeep.. She panicked, but i told her about the plugs under the rug.. pull these and it quickly drained!! But unfortunately, did ruin the radio, so in goes radio/CD no.2.. I visited her in Chicago and had radio no. 2 stolen out of the dash(someone forgot to lock it!)..
I have developed a Jeep mentality.. never leave anything in it thats valuable, then don't lock it!! if its locked, you just use a knife to cut the plastic windows which would be more expensive to replace!!
Sadly, in my old age, I've developed a bad left (clutch!!) knee.. It's become somewhere dicey to drive.. (Is my knee gonna make it home??) I hate to part with my baby, but that decision is floating around.. We've used it again this winter to clear the road, so we'll see..