The Blazer

Now that Donna has gotten her the Chrysler 300, we have an overabundance of vehicles. With Josh home, we have SIX vehicles. It was simply time for one to go. The obvious choice was of course our 1989 S-10 Blazer. It has over 196,000 miles on it, the gas tank leaks, the engine doesn't run well, all of the radio speakers are out, and the exhaust sometimes filters through the car. All the same, it's hard to give it up.

When Donna and I married, I had a 1983 Trans Am. It was my cool car designed to attract the eyes of any woman who looked on it. Of course, Donna didn't really like the car at all :-). It was a neat car to drive, but it was not a practical family car. It had a backseat, but it was so small you couldn't really have anyone ride in the back. Jonathan often asks why I got rid of that car which is really ironic. When Donna got pregnant in 1989, we realized that car wouldn't hold a car seat very well at all. She had a hard time getting in and out of the car when she got further and further along. We finally bit the bullet and bought a brand new 1989 S-10 Blazer on sale at Royal Oaks Chevrolet. We traded in my Trans Am for it since we already had Donna's newer Olds Cutlass. It was the first new car Donna had ever owned in her life. Lest you think I was always a Dave Ramsey guy, we actually borrowed money to buy the car. It was the last car we ever had payments on and we paid it off in a year.

That car has gone through a lot. It took us to the hospital twice to get new baby boys. We took it on all sorts of family trips. It was always the car that could pull through any snow. A few years ago, it was the car that managed to get back to our house through snow (and over a few limbs) when the big ice storm of 2009 hit. We've sat on its tailgate to watch movies at two drive-ins (Mayfield and Calvert City). It's hauled all sorts of sports equipment and all sorts of Ballard County/Memorial athletes. Both of the boys learned to drive with it. It's been like a member of the family.

Josh has been trying to sell it through various means for the past couple of months. Then, my sister-in-law's husband Jimmy offered to buy it. We were thrilled to get anything for it. He knows how to actually fix things on a car so he can fix some of the issues with it and enjoy using it. Changing out bulbs and an air filter the limit of my capabilities. Donna got a little upset when she saw him driving it after we took it to him today. I'll miss that old car too.