The first car I ever owned was an Olds Delta 88, it was a boat, you could fit 5 people in the trunk. When you are young you do stupid things. After hitting a telephone pole with it in broad daylight and totally sober I bought a Ford Pinto, I actually had 3 of those, I always liked the ideal of driving a bomb and anyway they had manual transmissions were cheep to drive and did not cost a ton of money. I really wanted the MG but it was a little pricey for me. After the Pintos I had Escorts and now I have a Focus, all reasonable, reliable, boring cars.

What I want is a Jeep. Not one of those fancy smancy ones just a good old fashioned Jeep Wrangler, 5 speed rag top like the army had at one time. I have always liked driving them and any chance I get I do. I don’t own one at this time because it’s not a “reasonable” thing to do. I drive on flat paved well maintained roads. I drive 120 miles round trip to work. I don’t like the beach so I don’t need a 4 wheel drive to get to those great secluded spots the locals know about. When I do go to a beach function I can always hitch a ride with someone else.

Lately for my trips to the mountains I have been renting a Wrangler. It’s not my ideal Jeep, it’s an automatic, but its still fun and in a pinch it does its job. On my last visit to the mountains the weather was great until the last day and then the heavens just let go. The drive way and the area that was leveled for the future house and where the camper is now kept is clay. Clay is great to drive on when it’s dry but when it’s wet we have whole nother animal. The whole area turned into clay muck. One time while driving out the jeep started to slip to the side; Of course it was in 4 wheel drive but even so we slipped in a most uncomfortable way. I let the jeep come to a complete stop slapped it into 4 wheel low, took my foot off the gas and let that sucker pull its self out. It’s a great feeling when a piece of machinery does what it’s supposed to do. My son and I had some fun messing around that day; it took me a whole day to clean that Jeep!

Now mud and Jeeps go together but mud and an 80lb dog in a 19 foot camper dosent. It was an absolute mess. I just can’t describe it. It was horrible. My plan was not to do any more work to the property until I was ready to build. I did not want to work on the road or the building site just to have it messed up by heavy equipment but I want to bring my dogs. There was a choice to be made, spend the money saved to rent the Jeep on the Jeep or gravel. Gravel won out so the week after next when I go to the mountains I will be driving a sensible, reliable, boring Ford Focus but when I move up there I will have a Wrangler!