Our daughter Allison has been driving her 1997 Jeep Cherokee since getting her license 15 years ago.  On her way home for Spring Break one year, she was involved in a bad accident.  When we saw the Jeep for the first time in the tow truck yard, it didn't look good.   As I stood there in the misty rain thanking God that she was not injured she was standing next to me hugging her mom she asked, “Can you fix it?”  I responded, “I will do my best.”  I did not believe it myself when I said that.  That was March 19, 2011.  On May 18, a day before her birthday I gave it back to her looking and running better than it did before.  I had set a goal of giving it back to her on her birthday.  It was only through the grace of God that I achieved that. 

In August 2017, we all had to evacuate our home due to the Hurricane Harvey flood.  The Jeep was parked in the garage.  After we moved back to our ‘new home, same location’ a few months later, I tackled the job of getting the Jeep running again.  That was about as much work as repairing it from the wreck. The water had gone almost over the dash.  The Cherokee ran well for many years since that repair. I told her that if she ever bought a new car, I would give her what they offered her as a trade-in for the Jeep.  I had too much blood sweat and tears invested in that Jeep.

When school let out last month, her summer started a well-deserved rest from teaching special needs kids in the elementary school. She told me she was considering buying a new Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk this summer. My mind went to work to figure out how to add another car to our garage.  In 2002 we expanded the garage to accommodate my car projects.  We have a total of seven cars which includes the projects.  I have always had the belief that you never park cars outside.  Why risk the second-biggest investment to damage or theft when there is a way to shelter them?  The biggest investment is our home.   Jennifer and I park our daily drivers in the original part of the garage.   In the expanded part where I work on my projects, we keep the Corvette, Big, and either our son’s VW GTI or Allison’s Jeep.  I built a carport on the side of the garage where we keep the 1953 Chevy Wagon and one of the kid's cars. All parking spaces are taken each night.  When I had time to work on my projects, I had to move cars around to make room to work.  Then I must allot time to put up everything including the cars each evening.  In most cases, it took 30 minutes to get everything back in order.  Cleaning and putting away tools and moving cars back to their spots.

When Allison made her announcement about buying a new car, I had to make some tough choices.  Something had to be moved to long-term storage in the backyard. Right now, the Corvette is low on the list of projects to work on. I am building a new engine for the Bug which had gone underwater in the flood.  Getting the Bug back on the road is getting close.  So, moving the Bug out did not make sense.  What I decided to do was the Corvette and Kermit the Jeep would be moved to the backyard to make room for the new Jeep.  With the plan in place, I started to work.  Jennifer came out to the garage to help.  We had to move a lot of stuff, mostly junk away from the Corvette. Move the Bug out to the driveway and do a deep clean of the garage. 

With everything out of the way, the Corvette was ready to push out the back door of the garage.  I explained to Jennifer where the Corvette needed to go.  The idea was simple, push the Vette out then, try to steer it to the right where it would end up next to the fence.  I say try to steer; the Corvette is just a body sitting on the frame so there is no steering wheel.   We both pushed and it rolled a few inches before the rear wheels locked up.  Great! Now we must figure out a plan B to get the car moved.  We stopped so I could figure out how to get the Corvette with the least amount of work.  More work means more time.  We did not have a lot of time left for the day.  My instinct was to jack up the Corvette to figure out what was locking up the rear wheels.  But that takes time we did not have.

Jennifer brought supper out, which gave me time to work the problem.  As we sat out in the garage eating a wonderful meal that she had prepared, I said, “You know, it is times like this that we will talk about when we are old.”  The funny part is we are both in our mid-60s.  Talking ideas with her we came up with ‘Plan B’.  I have a small stack of plywood under the carport.  We would make a path with those, put the skates under the rear wheels, and push the Vette.  The idea was to move the first piece of plywood to continue the path.  What I did not take into account was that the first piece was under the front wheel and the Corvette was no longer on concrete where I could easily jack it up.  I brought out more plywood, but these were smaller.  The trail of wood was getting short.  We both pushed with all our strength when we decided that this was where the car was going to spend the night. 

We put a large tarp over it but instead of tying it properly, we put heavy objects all around onto the tarp to keep the wind from blowing it off.  The sidepipes made for good weight along the sides.  I parked Kermit the Jeep where the Corvette had lived for many years.  We pushed the Bug from the driveway into the garage and brought in everything we put on the driveway. 

We are not completely ready for Allison to bring home her new Jeep, but we are closer.  Jennifer said that now is the time to throw away stuff I will never use, like all the Mini Cooper parts.  We traded Will’s Mini Cooper a few years ago for the GTI.

I am so sore as I write this. I am sure Jennifer is just as sore.  I think this is one of our ‘adventures’ we will talk about when are old… I mean older.