Car Freedom

Beep backing out of the garage for the last time...










Beep at carmax, waiting to be adopted...

 

Walking from carmax to trax...and waiting for the next train.

Well, we did it. We sold Beep. No more quick runs to the store or spontaneous drives to the mountains. We are going to have to plan better or just hoof it.

It's amazing how attached you can get to an inanimate object, and how you can identify yourself by it. We bought Beep (Black Jeep) back in 2006, which is the longest either of us have had a vehicle, with only like 26 miles on it. We left him today with 26,116... I think. We have been to Moab, Escalante, Zions, the Uinta's and many other places over the past few years. We have gained two members of our family (2 dogs, which for us are like our kids) since getting Beep and they have learned to love riding in the back, especially with the seat out, the dog bed in, and the top down!  They have both learned to recognize jeeps and go a little crazy when they see one on the road, excited that they are going somewhere. Happy even added her little 'special touch' by poking her head out the back window and creating a huge rip in the plastic...but it became her 'spot' whenever we got in the jeep.

We have been through a lot with Beep, and are happy that we always got wherever we were going safely. I'll miss driving him, but am ready to move on to our new adventure of being car independent. We'll still drive from time to time, by either using ucarshare or renting, but we will be free of the monthly car payments, free of the insurance and gas and maintenance. We won't have to worry about it being broken into (as it has twice in the past year) or pay for parking, or even find parking (for the most part). But there will defiantly be challenges of not having a car...some of which I'm sure I don't even know about yet, but that's all part of the fun, right??

Next step

We cleaned Beep today. Really cleaned him...like took over an hour vacuuming and washing and waxing and...well, you get the picture. Beep is probably the cleanest he has been since we got him (3 years ago), does that make us bad car owners??
We also threw away the dog bed that has been in the back of the jeep for quite awhile. Jake made the bed before we even adopted Eli, our greyhound, just for him. It became an 'outside' dog bed this spring and has slowly been falling apart because of being loved sooooo much by our doggies so it was time to retire it into the dumpster today. :(
Our plans are to take it in either tomorrow (Monday) or Tuesday to carmax to see if they really live up to their advertisements. I've never known a car dealer to be honest so if this works out (without feeling like I got screwed) I will be extremely happy and surprised! Otherwise... we'll have to put some work into selling, ummm...I mean 'adopting' him out to a good family. Gilly, our car turtle, will have to learn to live indoors now, or on our bike ;)

'Jimmy'   

See, we aren't total hermits that never drove anywhere...

We have a lot of fond memories that wouldn't have
happened without 'Jimmy' or 'Beep'.

Our beloved Gilly, who has journeyed with us since the beginning.

'Beep'

Owning a vehicle

Cars cost lots of money. Simple as that, really. It doesn't matter if you drive them or let them sit in your garage forever. There are still a lot of things you will need to pay for. Insurance, maintenance, gas, registration, emissions and inspections, time wasted while driving.
If money isn't an issue for not owning a car; what about all the time lost while driving one? This is why I don't particurly like driving. I could be doing a whole lot of other more useful things. In fact when I lived farther away from work I got a good nap in while on the bus. The trick is to set an alarm or something so you don't miss your stop!
Currently, we still own a car. We are at a point that we finally owe less than what we can probably sell it for. I think we would have sold it a long time ago if it wasn't for the fact that we bought our jeep new with a nice 8 year payment plan... Thankfully we started to pay extra on him ( Beep is the name of our jeep ) a while back.
I always thought when we bought Beep, we wouldn't ever buy another vehicle again. Of course this is usually the plan when you buy something, no? I also wanted a new car. Something that I could say how each dent and scratch came to be on it.
We later realized that our choice of a vehicle was perhaps not the wisest. It did fit our outdoor activities lifestyle; plenty of room for two big dogs in the back. A bike rack so we can take trips down to Moab and do some biking. Four wheel drive so we can get where we want to be. It came in useful one time after parking in a snowed in parking lot in millcreek canyon.
So, in short, owning a vehicle has it's upside as well as it's downside. I think we are ready to experience getting around using our bikes, public transit, ucareshare, and our own two feet.