Goodbye Little Red....

"Little Red" was the first car I ever owned. To say it was good to me is a little bit generous.

In February of 2010, my parents gave us a car. A fantastic, blue Ford Explorer. Though the Cavalier had found its semi-permanent home in our front yard, the arrival of the new vehicle signalled the end for the Cavalier... officially.

I bought "Little Red" in 2002 and it was a wonderful car. I remember my Opa giving me almost half of the money I needed to pay for the car. I saved up some of my own money and my parents threw in the rest. I would pay them back the amount they added over the next several months.

The Cavalier was the perfect vehicle for the first few years, but, through no one's fault but my own, it quickly began to fall apart. Shortly after we moved to Orlando, I was in an accident. TJ and Eric were in the car with me and the brakes gave out. We promptly rear-ended a Crown Victoria and crunched the front of my car. The Crown Vic escaped unharmed and the lady even apologized to me (even though we slammed into her car). After waiting for 2 hours in the rain for a patrol officer to arrive at the scene, he told us to just go our separate ways.

The car overheated three times on the way back to Northgate (where we lived at the time) and, though it sounds crazy, I'm sure we were almost ax-murdered on the last of those stops. We finally made it back to Northgate and the Cavalier began its new hobby, sitting idle in parking lots.

The Cavalier jumped from Northgate's Building L to Building G, acquiring a pinata donkey driver on the way. It then made its way, nervously, to The Fountains to watch the parking lot passers-by. Its final home has been here, at the Montello house, for the last 2 years. It enjoyed many days in the front yard, sheltering stray cats and watching the squirrels chase each other in the trees.

On April 26th, it made it's final run to the junk yard. With a big breath (and the help of the Malibu's battery), it sputtered to LKQ Junkyard around the corner from our house. It was a careful, smokey ride - smoke literally started to come into the car from the engine - up the street and into the junkyard parking lot. The car was parked at 4:45pm and the Malibu battery was removed. The car had made its last drive and found its final resting spot.

Though it was never the most reliable car (I know that was my fault), I will miss the times we had early on. I will miss the days I drove it to the Commissary on base. I will miss the days I left the Commissary early to visit Lisa at the Tortoise Island house. I will remember the time I ran out of gas in Satellite Beach and had to call for help. And I will miss the nights it helped me sneak out to meet Lisa for our long talks (sorry Mom and Dad!).

Thank you for 8 rocky, happy, frustrating, and joyous years, Little Red.