As many of you know I have had a unique history with cars and life in general. I've finally decided to write them down and I figured using a blog would be a good way to share them with others. I trust you will enjoy the story of some of my many adventures over the last few years.
In eight years I've owned four cars. A '96 Dodge Intrepid, a '95 Escort wagon, an '86 Celebrity and an '86 Buick Delta Eighty Eight. Of the four cars I owned I totalled two. The story is down right amazing so I'll start from the top. The first car was the Intrepid. It was in great shape when I bought it and served me well...until I killed it. The process could've been put into a speech with four points.
1. Deer
2. Door
3. Ditch (equals)
4. Death
First, there was the deer. I was coming home from work and hit a deer breaking my front passenger side blinker light. I had no idea the turn of events I had just kicked into motion.
I hit the deer a week or so before I was to go on vacation. A friend was getting married and his sister Amy was going to school in the town I grew up in (Kalamazoo, MI). So we left early Sunday morning. Initially, there was a concern about the condition of my tires. However, we determined that they would make the trip down easily enough. Of course coming back was another matter.
After we crossed the Mackinaw Bridge the speed limit changed from 55 to 70. We were making pretty good time until we started hearing a consistent noise. My tire was dying. Amy was getting worried about it (as was I) and so I pulled over at the next available rest area. The rest area we stopped at was closed. In fact, it was being built which was good because no one was there. Since I had missed the entrance I entered through the exit. I had to go up a hill and it really freaked Amy out. Go figure. We got to the top of the hill and I told Amy that it was going to be a little while because I've never to change a tire before. She said, "No problem. I'll do it." Given our circumstance and my lack of experience in the area I really couldn't argue. The one thing I did tell her was that I wouldn't say anything to the guys at work. Her response: "Why? Oh yeah. You're getting your tire changed by an 18 year old girl." (Side note: I did share it with the guys at work as it was too funny to not share it) It took us some time to get the tire changed. First, we couldn't get the car to stay in one place because we didn't have blocks to keep the car from rolling.. Like I said the rest area was being built so there were stacks of cement blocks around. I had a full size spare but it didn't have a lot of air in it so we had to drive 45 mph to Perrinton, MI where we stopped at the gas station to fill it up. While at the gas station we had to wait for an old lady to move her car, then I was trying to figure out how to get the air to come out of the hose. Yeah. Pretty sad. As it turned out I had to pay to use the air hose. I think the Upper Peninsula may be the only place you don't have to pay for air. I had asked Amy if I was doing something wrong so she was trying to get the hose to work. After we figured out that I needed money I went in and got change and she filled the tire. As she was filling the tire the gas clerk walked by, looked at me, then Amy, and said, "Oh. You're having her do it." As if my ego wasn't in a fragile state as it was! An eighteen year old girl just changed my tire and now she's filling my tire too. Oh well. I guess that's just par for the course.
I finally got home and just wanted to get away from my car. I parked where I always park when I go home and went inside and went to bed. I have no idea what time we got to Kalamazoo but it was after dark. I dropped Amy off at Western and then proceeded to drive to Vicksburg. There's one thing I hate about Western. I always get lost (and always have) trying to get off campus. This particular day was no exception. I called Dad on my cellphone and found out I had just gone the wrong direction. As soon as I got back to the highway I knew where I was. By the time I got home I just wanted to get inside to see the family and relax after my long day. I parked my car where I always have, parallel to the house where the driveway ends and the back yard begins. At this point I must pause to say that while I was living in the Upper Peninsula my parents developed a bad habit. Several times they backed into people's cars. The first car was my brother's. It was broken down anyway and from what I understand others had been hit as well, enough so that people refused to park there. No one told me this. (I think you can see where this is going.) I got up the next morning and there was a note on the kitchen table saying I needed to call my Dad because he had backed into my car and dented the door. There wasn't much I could do about it since I was just visiting and I was planning on getting the lights fixed when I returned to the UP so I just waited until I got back to fix it.
Generally winter begins around October or November in Upper Michigan. 2004 was no different and toward the end of October we saw our first snow of the year. High winds and cold temperatures combined for some rough weather. Because it was the first snow the ground wasn't frozen and the snow was really sloppy and therefore quite dangerous. Being the photographer that I am I wanted to get some pictures of the waves on Lake Superior. I was living in a small town fairly close to Lake Superior so the drive should have been relatively short, even in the bad weather. I left home around noon and made it about a mile out of town, at which point I lost control and slid off the road. I climbed out of the car, assessed the damage, and then started walking back toward town. As soon as I got back to the point at which my cellphone worked I called a wrecker and the sheriff. I waited until the wrecker showed up. The police were with him when he came. He let me off with a warning and the wrecker gave me a ride back into Mohawk where I got $75 out of the ATM and paid him for the tow. Now you'd think that I would just have stayed home. Nope. I figured I'd just go slower. However, my speed wasn't the issue. On that particular day if you were on the road driving you were going to fast. So I made my way back to Eagle River. I'm not sure how much farther I made it but it wasn't much farther. This time however the damage was much more severe. Quite frankly, had the car not hit a small wooden roadside marker causing it to go into a spin I probably wouldn't have made it or at least been in really bad shape. The car slid into the pole, spun into a gully having done a 180 degree spin lodging itself onto a large rock. I had to call the sheriff again and it was the same guy. He figured I was reporting the first accident. It was quite humbling to have to make that call. On top of that I got the same wrecker. He made $150 over his lunch break pulling me out of a ditch.
I drove to church the next morning, but was very paranoid. On Monday I took the car to get the car assessed for the insurance company. The damage was extensive. The outside was livable. That is to say I could've gotten by without fixing it. However, the underside of the car was not. . The back driver side wheel had been bent in and the tire was literally peeling away. Needless to say I didn't drive it after that. The mechanic asked me if I was still driving it because as he explained, the wheel had been rammed in and was pressed up against the strut casing causing the tire to literally peel away. It got me home but I didn't drive it again. Total damage: $2200. The car was worth $6000 in good condition. The insurance company totaled it out and I got enough money to pay off the car and buy another one. Thus started my beater car legacy.
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