Thursday, August 22, 2013

Taking a stand against boring commutes!

OK so here is an official rant by me. I am SOOOOOOO sick of hearing about gas mileage this and gas mileage that. Blah, Blah, Blah! I am taking a stand against boring commutes. I figure I spend 1.5 hours on work days commuting. That adds up to 7.5 hours. I then end up driving a couple hours each weekend so I am going to estimate that I spend roughly 10 hours a week driving. That equals 520 hours a year at least, give or take a little. That equals out to be a lot of time spent on the road. I remember when I was in high school I loved to drive. In fact I lived for it. I had a big block trans am that was a blast to drive. When I got home from my mission I bought an Isuzu trooper. Not really sure what I was thinking there but that only lasted a few months and I ended up buying my brothers 69 Nova. I kept that car until I got married. After that there were many cars that came into and out of our lives. I bought my dad's 92 Chevy truck that he had bought new. I loved that truck and I only sold it because my family grew too big to fit in a single cab. That is when I bought the truck that I currently have. I put about 2000 miles a year on it now so soon it will be a low mileage truck. I remember the first car we bought was a Honda CRX. It was a little 2 seater that I used as a truck most of the time. I have to admit it was really fun to drive. I still liked driving back then. Anyways, time went on. A few years ago I bought a "commuter" car. It was a 96 Mitsubishi Galant. I look back now and can't really figure out what I was thinking. I never did like driving that car. (Dixie did though.) I ended up buying a Pontiac Bonneville that I was going to flip. I decided to put both cars up for sale and I would keep the one that didn't sell. I ended up selling both cars which didn't really bother me and I ended up buying my 1969 bug. For the past 3 years I have been driving aircooled bugs for my daily drivers. It has been many miles and I look forward to driving to and from work everyday. In fact if I have to drive my truck for more than a couple days I dread it. My bug doesn't have air conditioning, cruise control, power steering, power brakes, air bags, automatic trans, or cup holders and it rides fairly rough but I have a blast driving it. I feel like I am in a go cart wherever I go. It turns on a dime and I love to shift it. The radio is an old cassette player with one speaker in the dash but it works good. I get great tans on my left arm the longer summer goes on and it takes a little more maintenance then once every 100,000 miles like today's cars. I have vowed to never drive anything as a daily driver that is less then 35 years old. I don't want to be stuck in a cookie cutter car that looks like every other car on the road out there. Jay Leno is my hero when it comes to driving old cars. He has a big collection of cars and drives all of them. He even drives his old steamer cars to work. In fact here is an article he wrote about it.It's titled "Why I like em older."
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/extras/articles/why-i-like-em-older/index.shtml
Here is another article he wrote that goes along with my thinking. It's titled "Why everyone should drive an old car."
 http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/extras/articles/why-everyone-should-drive-an-old-car/index.shtml#item=84665
Here is my final argument for my stand. It comes from a roadkill episode on you tube. The part that I am referring to starts at 12:00 minutes and goes until 12:40. The parts about appliances and gas station conversations are so true! Check it out!
So, I guess I will end my rant. I understand that some people can't go without A/C and cruise but I can do without those creature comforts as long as it keeps my driving interesting and fun. Life is to short to drive around in an appliance. Ha Ha. My old cars may be the death of me someday but there are worse ways to go. Life is too short, you might as well enjoy as much of it as you can! Until next time turn down the i pod, put down your soda,  roll down your windows and enjoy some air that isn't getting blown through your cabin air filter (that has probably never been changed). You might decide you like it.


  

No comments: