Highway Romance

I'm certain that it's not just me... don't we all have a bit of romantic attachment to our first car? It's just such a significant teenage time of life anyway and then you add to the mix all that freedom of being able to get yourself from here to there and... the heart soars, the mind reels. The possibilities are endless even if, as in my case, you were just driving around in circles on an smallish Big Island! The proof is in the little bit of lightness and footloose freedom that I feel just seeing pictures of the roadway romances of my past...

Something like my mom's 1968 Ghia... she drove it all over California and Washington and cared for it so lovingly that I was driving it around the Big Island in the early 90s. So low and so sporty... and so loud with the top down and the radio up!

Nearly just like my 'first car'... and a perfect Hawaii vehicle. I drove it across lava fields and into taro valleys with black sand beaches for overnight camping trips. Well used when purchased, but tricked out with pipe bumpers, a fancy stereo system and a huge custom sub-woofer in the back!

Boxy but good: my college-in-New England transportation was bought off a small used car lot near Providence. It came with the extra way-back seat, which meant that I could pack 6 friends and myself into the thing for trips to amusement parks and ski mountains. I covered the back bumpers and windows with typical college-y bumper stickers ('mean people suck', 'visualize whirled peas' and, for a reason that escapes me now, the UC San Diego logo). A very happy Happy Valley vehicle.

To keep the car romance fires burning, Chance has a few covet-able cars in their blog archives ... my heart is all a-flutter over that Mercedes 190SL from their October post!