Happy Birthday to our Jeep

When I first met Brandon he had a some what reliable Pontiac Grand Prix. The car had some quirks such as the passenger side door couldn't be opened from the inside, and the dashboard lights didn't work. The biggest quick was what Brandon called "cancer of the electrical system." The car would usually start the first time you turned the ignition switch, but occasionally the you would turn the switch and nothing would happen. All you had to do was wait 5 minutes and try again and the car would start. Odd, but we could live with it.

By the time we got married the cancer had started to spread. We knew the car wouldn't last much longer, but we had no other choice than to keep driving it. On our honeymoon the AC went out and we had to get it fixed. There was no way we would drive back to Logan without AC. Actually, because the AC turned on the same belt as everything else in the engine there was no way we could drive back unless we got the AC fixed. $900, a borrowed car, and one day later we were able to drive back to Logan.

Throughout the rest of the summer the cancer continued to spread-- the ABS light wouldn't turn off so we couldn't get the car to pass inspection and the transmission started acting funny. We did have great AC though. Finally at the end of July we decided the cancer had gone terminal. The car was considered dead.

School was just starting. It was my last semester and we had no money to buy another car. We probably could have scraped together enough for a junker, but we did not want to go from one crappy car to another. Instead we decided to tough it out. Luckily we lived only 10 minutes from campus and 20 minutes from the grocery store. We both had jobs close by our apartment. For anywhere else we needed to go we could take the bus which is free in Logan.

And so for the next 6 months we lived without a car. It was actually pretty fun. We saved money when we went to the store because we didn't buy anything we couldn't carry. We discovered that we had really great gospel discussions as we walked home from church. We also enjoyed walking together for dates and things. Still we could only go to Salt Lake when we were offered rides and we missed the ability to jump in the car and go somewhere on a whim.

After I graduated I started my full time job. With my first paycheck I made more in two weeks than Brandon and I had made in a month with our two part time jobs. It was now time to think about buying a car. Brandon looked online for a Jeep Cherokee. He found one listed online and test drove it. He really liked it and took me the next day to test drive it. As soon as we drove off the lot I felt like it was our car. We went home, slept on it, and then the next day we bought the jeep.

That was a year ago today. I love that jeep. It is so perfect for us. We are able to fold down the back seat and have a huge trunk. Its taken us to Yellowstone and this year will take us to California. I'm so glad we have it. And yet we still have some old habits from our half a year with out a car. For example, we walked together to the transit center today. Brandon got on the bus to go to school and I walked the 20 minutes to work.