Meet my travel partner

While I do travel with a few humans, by far my favorite travel partner is my car.

My poor car…I bought her when she was brand new, newer than new, a 2006 Honda Civic bought in August 2005. I went to the car dealership thinking I could get a good deal on the older style of car, but instead I walked out with this beauty. My father proudly (I think?) announced at the table during a family meal that I was the first person in our family to ever buy a new car.

I bought her to be a road trip car, the kind I could put my friends in, and she was soon proved with our (hers and mine) first big “friend” trip to Disney World in December 2005. Since then, we have made many trips to Florida, one all the way down to Key West, and one all the way up to Canada.

She has been the only reliable car in my immediate friend group for many years, but alas, at almost 13 years old she is getting along in car years. I’ve pulled the front bumper almost completely off twice, and I know exactly where all the dents and scratches come from, including a nice rusty chunk near the left rear tire (thanks, driveway.) We’ve just won a battle with a 2-year-old oil leak (hooray!) but are about to wage a new war with the flaky air conditioning (boo.) Parts are starting to randomly fall off, and I think someone recently stole the little caps that cover the bolts on the windshield wipers. After trying in vain to find replacements myself, I can’t say I blame them.

But she has a good heart (i.e. engine) and I hope she runs for a while longer. We just turned over 200,000 miles and I’d love to see another 50-100k out of her. As long as the air conditioning holds out. That’s a deal-killer, man. I cannot deal with no A/C. Hang in there, baby.

LET’S TAKE A TOUR

Most folks I know recognize my car by the Disney tag on the front. I even get questions asking me if I’m from Florida! Nope, it’s not legit. I bought the tag on eBay.

When I paid off the car around 2010, I wanted to replace the dealer’s tag with one of my own. Being a Disney fan with no antenna on which to put a foam topper, I opted for a reasonably subtle Disney tag (no characters for me.)

Then in the last few years, I’ve started adding bumper stickers to the back. I started with a couple window decals from Etsy. The one on the right above used to be part of a larger design:  but it was too big and hard to apply. I ended up with a big crease and after a while scraped it off. But I left the letters–I think it makes a definitive statement about my amorphous future.

THE BUMPER STICKERS

Then I got into for-real, these-are-the-places-I’ve-been bumper stickers. Some of them are “cheats” that I bought after a trip was done, or after the sticker I did buy on a trip fell off.

And since this is *MY* narcissistic blog, let’s go through them all.

YELLOWSTONE, WY

I started collecting bumper stickers on a road trip west to Seattle & Alaska with my parents three years ago and we had stopped at Yellowstone for three nights. (I’ll write about this trip soon.) It wasn’t in my own car, but it still counts! I picked up the round sticker before I found the buffalo-shaped one and decided that both needed to go on my car.

GRAND TETONS, WY

During that same stop, we visited the Grand Teton National Park right below Yellowstone, where I picked up this vintage-looking sticker. It looks a little worse for wear…

WHITE PASS & YUKON RR, SKAGWAY, AK

On that same trip, we drove to Seattle, WA to board a cruise ship for Alaska. And it was on that cruise that we took the White Pass Scenic Railway in Skagway, Alaska.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, CANADA

This is a drive I actually took in this car–all the way to Prince Edward Island in Canada. I picked this up in the gift shop for the Green Gables Heritage Place. I’ll talk more about that trip soon. (I swear it was much more colorful when I bought it…)

SMOKY MOUNTAINS, TN

The “You Are Here” one I picked up in Ober Gatlinburg during my birthday spent riding Alpine Coasters, mainly because I loved the odd shape. The little bear paw I got after a week with my family in a bear-themed cabin.

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, MT

This was on that “Western Ho” trip with my parents. We stopped in Glacier National Park and took a great tour of the Going-To-The-Sun Road. It was amazing! I found this nifty sticker at our hotel.

CHATTANOOGA, TN

I couldn’t resist this MoonPie-themed sticker, bought in the MoonPie General Store in downtown Chattanooga.

COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE, OR

The Columbia River Gorge drive was on the way back from our Alaskan cruise. I had originally bought a paper sticker of Multnomah Falls, but it didn’t last long. So I found this vinyl one to replace it. I’m not even sure it’s for cars, but it’s held up really well!

KEY WEST, FL

I wasn’t collecting bumper stickers back when we made this trip to Key West, so I bought this later to add to my collection! That was definitely a fun drive. I’ll write about that too. Consider this sticker tour a preview of my blog posts for the coming months.

PORTLAND HEAD LIGHT, ME

Visiting the Portland Head Light happened on the way back from my Prince Edward Island drive. I bought a sticker on-site, but it didn’t last. And I love this sticker I found to replace it. So much of that trip was spent driving through–and getting lost–in Maine, and stopping at this lighthouse was a very meaningful moment for me.

There are a couple more–a Nooga strong sticker handed out after the killing of 5 servicemen in Chattanooga in 2015, and a Lookout Mountain sticker.

Stay tuned for stories from all these trips and more!