JEEP

On this cold rainy 4th of July in Seattle several terrific things happened. I grubbed up with my extended family : Ben Blood, Roald & Lauren, Hillary, and Buce. We had 3 grills goin! We really porked out! Another amazin thing that happened was Hillary saying she had a Jeep, this sent a shot of nostalgia quickly into my Michigan avenues. We shared our families both always having Jeeps and both of us learning how to drive stick in em. I remember going to Uncle Tommy's house and he said 'heres the keys, lets go into the corn field and learn how to drive stick'. That was a great no bars full boar experience. I think I was 12.

(this is the one I drove today)

Hillary then told me 'wanna take it for a spin?' I was too nervous to take someones Jeep on a spin and insisted she drove and I'd go for a ride. We went out and she schooled me on ALL things Jeep. She named all the parts, explained the different engine types for different Jeep models. It was a full thrashing of my naivety. She finally got me to take it for a drive. It was much different than the easy Honda stick. You had to kinda man handle it, the gear shift wasn't really smooth, the stick needed some muscle to move it, and it also had an extra gear with an extended release on the clutch. As soon as I got the hang of it, I wanted to drive over everything and forget the roads! It was fantastic! I came back super gitty.

Thanks everyone for a swell 4th. Thanks Hillary for a glimpse of my past and hopeful future of having a Jeep!