June Blog Challenge Day 2: Cars

I was smart and wrote today's post last night so that it was up bright and early today!

Day 2: "What do you drive? What is you dream car?"

I didn't get my license until I was 19. Don't really know why, besides the fact that I just didn't feel ready. I'm glad I waited because I'm pretty sure I would have been a horrible driver at 16.

My first car was a 2001 white Ford Focus. I bought it off of one of my classmates in college for $1,500. She was a bit of a hippie, so I was always scared that I would find some....illegal substances hidden somewhere. I had to drive with the windows down for the first week or so to air it out. The fire blanket under the hood was also suspiciously scorched, thinking the car had caught fire at some point.

My Focus was a trooper. One night while I was driving into a parking garage on campus, I heard a loud explosion come from under my hood. A huge puff of white steam and my car was no longer running. Turns out my radiator had exploded and melted every plastic piece under the hood. Most people would have totaled their car, but I put a new radiator in her and she ran for another year until the breaks went out and I crashed into the back of a Volvo. The Volvo was fine, but my poor Focus was totaled.

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Thankfully this happened just before Keegan and I moved to Mississippi so I was stuck driving a gold Ford Taurus wagon for only a few months. The Taurus has since been passed onto my sister who has lovingly named it The Shaggin' Wagon.

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Once in Mississippi, I didn't have a car for about a month. We didn't really have the finances to buy something new, so we went to used car dealers trying to find something in our price range. One dealer didn't have anything in stock in our price range, but he was personally trying to sell his 2001 Pontiac Sunfire. A quick run to the bank, where we were accused of wanting to buy drugs due to the amount of cash we were taking out, and the Sunfire was mine. 

I drove the Sunfire for about a year before we decided I needed something more reliable. Since Keegan and I both drive cars until they die, we decided we needed to get something that could hold a few future kids (this was before we were married and trying to conceive.) 

Keegan drives a Mazda 3 and has always loved it, so we decided to go with Mazda for my mew car. 8 hours of test driving and negotiations on a Saturday in July, and the Mazda CX-5 was mine. Well, kind of. At the dealership, they only had white CX-5s, and I wanted anything other than white. Our car salesman said that he had the same car in blue at another dealership, but they had to have it shipped. We agreed, and made plans to come pick up the car on Monday. 

Come Monday, we drove back to the dealership and were greeted with my new car: 

Our salesman came up to us and said that we were extremely lucky. He didn't realize that the blue car was a step below the most expensive package when he sold us the white model for the price of the most basic package. Basically, we got in-car navigation, sunroof, and a back up camera for free. 

I've had my CX-5 for less than a year and have already put over 20,000 miles on her. I'm so happy that we chose this car and I'm sure it'll be great for when we have kids. 

As for my dream car, I've always loved El Caminos. I don't really know why, but I always have ever since I was in my teens. My dream car would be a 1968 model in a jewel tone (red, dark blue or emerald.) 

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Keegan keeps promising me that I'll have one someday, but I'll believe it when I see it. 

Keegan has his dream car. We joke that I got the (engagement) ring and he got his car. She's a 1971 Stingray Corvette in red. We bought her off of Ebay in October 2011 and she was shipped from Texas. We picked her up in a WalMart parking lot at 4 in the morning, and Keegan has been in love ever since. 

The 'Vette was our get away car for the wedding. Since we didn't have engagement pictures done with our wedding photographer, he agreed to do a session with us (and the 'Vette) the day after the wedding. 

Corvette logo and our wedding rings

We drove the car up to the top of a parking garage overlooking my home town. There are landmarks in the background that you'd recognize if you're from central Missouri. 

So there you have it! In the short 5 years I've been driving, I've had four cars (that makes me sound like a horrible driver, but I promise I'm not.) I hope to add another one to the list when I (someday) get my El Camino.