Today's thought...Saying good-bye to an integral part of us.

We had to say good-bye to the Hundred Dollar Wonder Car today. There was a lot of fun, a lot of love and a lot of us wrapped up in that car. It wasn't just a car. It was a part of us. It made me cry to see it go. And believe me, I've already had the people tell me I'm stupid for letting it get to me, but dammit, it's sad!

The ole man and I have had that car damn near the entire 10 years we've been married! It's been through a rear-ending, hitting a deer, going off into a ditch and breaking an axle, several headlight/taillight changes, a transmission overhaul and one of the wheels falling completely off when a bearing went out. It went through Hershey (our first dog), our wedding (when at the time coincidentally my brother in law MR2 owned it), several trips to Florida, one to Atlanta and several times to East Tennessee (and no one could believe the car actually made it as far and as long as it did without breaking down and leaving us stranded, and it never did.)

There were times when my husband would actually race other cars going down the interstate to the point that one day, I had a car come up beside me and try to race me, but backed off once they realized it was me driving and not my husband. The Hundred Dollar Wonder Car was known well through out town as a racer, and we'd never touched the engine. We could push it up to at least 120 mph (not that we ever did that), and the damn thing would NOT top out. There was no top end in the engine. The only time we ever got beat racing (I mean, riding down the road at the same rate of speed as the other car), well anyway, we were running (REALLY FASTLY) down the road and all of a sudden this red car that was running beside us (equally fast) just took off down the road and left us eating dust (figuratively speaking). That guy had NOS.

It was with us when we bought our first house, and when we lost our Hershey to pancreatic cancer. I loved that car. You know how someone can be driving this piece of shit car that is rusting out from under them and no air conditioning, and you look at them and they look like they are driving around in a Rolls Royce? Yeah, that was me in the Hundred Dollar Wonder Car. You had to open the drivers side door from the inside, you had to start the car with a flat head screw driver, and sometimes the trunk pop button worked, sometimes it didn't I loved that damn car. I looked like I was driving in a Ferrari because I FELT like I was driving in a Ferrari! Didn't matter what anyone said, that was my car and I loved it! And my husband felt the same way about it when he drove it.

It was my dream to eventually turn the thing into a 10 second car. Yes, that's right. I was going to turn a Ford Tempo into a 10 second car. Alas, we had to part and say good-bye. And yes, I cried. It was a stupid car, that was a huge part of our lives as a couple and was hard to part with. For years I argued that I wouldn't ever get rid of it, but in the end, needing to eat overcame the need to make a race car. We'll get there one day, and hell who knows, maybe I'll have my Ten Second Tempo, but until that time, I have awesome memories of the one that graced our lives. To you, Hundred Dollar Wonder Car. You will be forever etched into our memories as one of, if not our all time favorite car!