Some life history... via WHEELS!

In reference to this 2005 Ryan Post ~

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I'm not sure which is worse: my driving OR my parking!
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Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!
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Having said that ~ here are my various vehicles and experiences ...
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My mom had a 1970-ish green Ford Pinto, yes the ones that were recalled because of their propensity to blow up when hit in the rear end. When I was a new driver, at the tender age of 16, I crashed her car in a head-on collision as I was turning left at an intersection with poor visability (due to a curve in the road). As I sat in the middle of the intersection waiting to make the left, I couldn't see whether there was oncoming traffic, so I patiently waited for the light to turn red before I turned. And BAMA! A person ran the red light and smashed into my front driver quarter panel. Many other drivers stopped and corroborated my story and thus, I was spared the ticket.
Moms' car looked like this but hers was that incredible shade of pinto green ...

Next up, was my handy dandy trusted moped ~ Honda 50cc.
I drove this puppy from my mom's home to the University of Arizona ~ an 18 mile round trip adventure, top speed 19mph. I don't think I ever had an accident, much less a speeding ticket :~) My biggest adventure was once after I had moved closed to campus, having my college roommate Linda (aka, Linny, Linny Fat, or FRANC) riding on the bookrack on the back one afternoon as I held on to her with one arm and took her to the campus health center for diabetic shock. I can't remember the cute nickname we had for this little moped!By my junior year of college, I believed an upgrade in the transportation front was in order. I worked for minimum wage of $2.75 at a copy shop (print shop of the future :) and money was tight. That year I received a pell grant and with my $1250 grant, I purchased a Honda 200cc street bike. I had to have a fellow employee from work drive it home for me and teach me how to clutch, shift, balance, and drive the thing.
I always got strange looks as a young woman riding my motorcycle around Tucson with my long hair flying, shorts & t-shirt, back-pack and sandles. Ocassionally, as I parked or filled up my 1-gallon gas tank, I would be was asked, "Do you shift and everything?" That always cracked me up ... like, "Uh, no really the motorcyle and I just magically appeared here under your nose!" (not that I ever said that, but man!)
Once I rode to California to visit my grandfather being way too stupid to realize that a bike this size is not meant for long long rode trips ~ oucher on the kidneys and everything else that was so shaken for so so many miles! And one year, Linny and I rode my motorcycle up to ASU for the big post-Thanksgiving UofA-ASU rival football game and that was pretty fun ~ but the ride home seemed to take forever and we were cold... very, very, very cold!
No accidents, no tickets, but I did set my bike down on its side 3 times when I lost my balance just a smidge while parking or manuvering in tight spots on campus, and it was so heavy that once the tilt started, there was no way I could stop those 300 pounds from laying down (as gently as I could manage the affair) on the ground. My most embarrasing moments from college life were the three times I had to ask the closest tall guy to pick up my motorcycle for me!
The bike looked a lot like this (this is actually a 250cc, I couldn't find a picture of a 200cc ~ mine was dark green and the seat was straight rather than saddled) The next year, while I was working at the Senate (after Dave was crashed riding my motorcycle home from the hospital where he was doing his internship but before our graduation from college) I realized the incredibly stupid and unnecessary risk of driving a motorcycle and moved on to a Datsun B210 ~ we called this ugly puppy the "Hershey Kiss" ~ This is also a picture from the internet -- the car is exactly right (all the way down to the color and hubcaps) but not the driver :~) ...Once I had graduated and was gainfully employed in Denver, we traded in the Kiss for a dream car ... off the showroom floor, bright red, leather seats, beautiful, fully-loaded Mazda RX7. Financially, it was a poor car buy and a poor decision, but man-o-man was she fun to drive. A friend from work said she had "SOB Seats" ... meaning a sports car, leather seats, quick turns, and Slide Over Baby! I always thought that was both cute and funny and did it whenever Dave was in the car with me. Once Dave hit a bambi as we drove through the mountains on the way to Arizona for a visit home and right after the repair was complete, and just a week before our wedding, I drove this beauty right out in front of a Fire Department Suburban and was t-boned. What an Idiot I were! The fireman saw me pull out and he was able to veer a little bit hitting my passenger side front tire (rather than straight into the door) and breaking the front frame apart from the main section of the car (which I was told the RX7 was specially designed to do for safety) ... Of course, I was ticketed for that fiasco ...
As a PS to that story, I drove Dave's car to Phoenix to prepare for our wedding while he worked one more week. He had to walk to work at Denver General Hospital and there was a MAJOR snowstorm which he had to trudge through (walking both ways uphill in the snow :). He ended up with a stress fracture in his foot and because of our wedding and subsequent ski honeymoon, he refused to have it casted until we returned home a week later. He's always been tougher than I can ever ever imagine a guy could be!A year-and-a-half later, with a baby bulge in my tummy (Hi Ryan!) I drove to Arizona and traded the RX7 in for a Toyota Tercel 4WD station wagon ... We called it the "Money Machine" becuase on the backend it really liked that era's ATM machines! Shortly thereafter, I got a speeding ticket driving out of downtown Denver going 45 in a 35 ... it was really, really, really cold and I was trying to get the engine warm for me and my baby belly. The Money Machine was great on snow and ice and I really enjoyed this little car.
It was white but other than that, it looked just like this ...After 150,000 miles and the first 3 kids on the tercel wagon ~ we graduated up our driving to the Ford Aerostar mini-van. It was the only van with rear wheel drive for towing, all-wheel drive for bad roads, and was big enough inside for all of our camping stuff (this was back in the day when we were tent campers). It's nickname was the "Dustbuster" for obvious asthetic reasons and was retired with 175,000 miles. Dave (and Ryan) rearended a car on I-25 going to a Rockies game once and our au pair Ines let it roll out of the driveway (with its door open and Trey & Sean inside), across the court, over a tree, through the neighbors fence stopping 3" from Tim & Joan's garage ... Personally, I was blessed with no tickets or accidents while I drove it, although I went through a period where I was rear-ended several times by teenagers! I'd get out, give them a hug, tell them it was fortunately not a big deal and admonish them to drive more carefully.
Our dustbuster looked so much like this one ...About 5 years ago, we traded up to a gently used Honda Odyssey minivan. There's no doubt in my mind that as much as my teens HATE driving the van, this is absolutely my favorite car I've owned. I'd like Dave to pimp it out with pink lights underneath and flames along the side (to be the coolest mom in the ranch, ha ha ha :), but it drives like a dream, holds everyone you could ever want, and has great cargo capacity. I've never crashed it or had a ticket, but my bumpers tell a long and painful story of my parking problems!!
Here's a great picture from the internet of one that looks just like mine ...And that my dear family and friends, is the REAL story of this chica driver!
Be safe out there!!

Sherrie