Cars and Bumble Love

I would like to talk about cars, specifically the many cars that I have owned and what I like to call "car kinship" and "bumble love".

I just turned 26 a month ago and in the 10 years that I have had my license, I have owned the following cars. These are listed in chronological order complete with interesting facts about them. I have added pictures for each of the cars - some are of the actual car that I owned and some of them I found on the internet.

1. 1983 AMC Eagle (The stink bug), 2 door hatch back, two tone cat puke brown/orange-ish.
   The Eagle burned to the ground on I-90 about a month after I purchased it. That was very sad - it was a great little car. You have to check out this page from the 1983 Eagle brochure!
   
   
   
2. 1987 Nissan Sentra (Not worthy of a name), 2 door hatch back, royal blue.
   The Nissan's engine blew on I-5 near Mount Vernon. I pushed it off the freeway into a gas station, gathered all of my belongings and gave the key to the gas station attendant. I told him that someone would come get it. I went home and called a mechanic up in Mount Vernon and told him that I would pay for the new engine and install if he would sell it for me for a 10% commission. He paid a high school kid $10 to scrape all of the 48 stickers off of it. I profited $200 on that car.
   
   
   
3. 1998 Honda Civic (Ricky Racer - I didn't name it!), 2 door, silver.
   This was my first and only new car. It was ok and it got me where I needed to go. I sold it to my youngest brother who then sold it to my parents who then sold it to someone else. Everyone knows what this looks like, so I am not going to bother with a picture.
   
   
4. 1999 Jeep Wrangler Sport (Delilah), rockin', black.
   I had Delilah for 4 years, the longest of any car I have owned! Delilah loved to drive through mud, sand and shallow rivers. What a fun car! It was also very convenient - if there was a line to get into the bank parking lot, I would just drive over the sidewalk and down the stairs! The funny thing about modified Jeeps is that everyone else with a modified Jeep waves at you. Most are men, so it isn't so much a wave as a few fingers rising up off the steering wheel in recognition. This was my first experience with car kinship. It's very nice but also very strange to know immediately without ever talking to the person that you have something in common.
   
   
   
5. 1988 Toyota Pickup (Samson), 2 door, the lovable light blue piece of shit with 1980's graphic decals!
   Good old Samson. I bought Samson from one of my little brothers and ended up giving it back to him about 6 months later! The driver's side window doesn't roll up, the doors don't lock, it is missing the driver's side mirror, and you can pull the key out of the ignition while it's running! Samson is a piece of crap, but it's good to have a crappy car/truck because you just don't care if anything happens to it. Someone bumps you and puts a dent in it? It's their lucky day, because you can give them a get out of an insurance claim free card! It is also good to have a crappy truck for hauling stuff - who cares if the bed gets all scratched up or rusted? The headlight falls out? No problem, a few screws driven strait into the bumper and some duct tape will fix that! Samson has a bench seat so when someone would ride with me they would have to sit really far up because I have to sit close to reach the petals! :) DK and I might buy Samson back from my little brother soon!
   
   
   
6. 1994 Nissan Pathfinder (Shadrac), 4 door, dirty dark green. I currently own this car.
   Shadrac was Samson's replacement. Shadrac is a good, reliable car that you can fit a lot of stuff in. I must be really hard on my cars because since got Shadrac a ton of stuff has broken. I got Shadrac from a wholesaler in Portland. It turned out to be a legit deal, but when I first walked into the giant, sign-free warehouse loaded bumper to bumper with hundreds of cars and realized that the 3 guys running the place were arguing in Farsi I was a bit concerned about what I had walked into!
   
   
   
7. 1971 Volkswagen Transporter (Bumble Bee the Fun Mobile), 3 door, 12 windows, yellow and white with black interior. I currently own this car.
   What can I say, Bumble is my favorite car in the world. I am lucky that the cars I really want aren't very expensive! I tease DK that my German car is better than his German car. (He has a 2002 BMW 330 that he named Kit (Night Rider) because it has so many gadgets. I am going to dedicate a whole post to Kit's 007-like gadgets!) I was originally looking for a blue and white transporter that I was going to name Big Blue. When I found Bumble I immediately realized that she was the one for me even though she isn't blue!
   
   I have even created names for all of the models. Transporters are called Bumbles, Westfalias are called Wumbles, Vanagons are called Vumbles and Eurovans are called Eurumbles (pronounced yer-umbles)!
   
   You really don't see many transporters in this area. Transporters have the same kind of car kinship as modified Jeeps do, but I call it bumble love! When I discovered this I was so excited! A few weekends ago DK and I were heading out to Woodinville for a day of wine tasting. We were on the 405 headed north and out of the corner of my eye I see a red and white Bumble in excellent condition. As it passed us, the little boy (he was maybe 7 or so) in the back seat held up his hand like a peace sign and just kept watching us. Super cute! I was waving like crazy at him. I always honk at Bumble drivers and they honk back at me - it's really fun.
   

Related posts:
Little Miss Sunshine - 7/19/06
Camping - 6/14/06
Wanted: Pop Rivet Gun - 3/22/06
Shiny New Things - 3/2/06
Watch Out Bitches! - 2/28/06
Smoking & Bumble - 2/16/06