After 15 years in Denver, having parked in a wide variety of places all over the city, and in front of my own house, I took a hard hit to my passenger side corner panel in June. I was fast asleep, it was 12:30, prime sleeping hours for an old ride like me, when a Merc pulled a u-turn behind me. It’s operator must have thought she was clear of my booty, but nope. The Merc hit my right flank and slammed me into my sister, this beautiful white Sienna. Gosh, I was sore that morning.
The nice people that hit me left a note on the windshield. They were looking for my owners and around 7am they found them. My driver drove me forward some, easing me away from my sister Sienna. She faired pretty well. A sizable dent in her side above the rear wheel, but nothing that couldn’t be hammered out, painted, and polished. Me however, I could move fine, my driver made sure of that. He and the experts he took me to to get fixed thought I would soon be on the road again. But I felt like something was not right and that they’d have to take me apart to find out what exactly. After a several hour operation without anesthesia they found it, a cracked A/C unit that—at my age—is a death knell. They say the cost of repairing that A/C unit is more than my entire worth! Well, junk in my trunk, that freaking sucks.
I sat in a shitty dirt lot getting dusty for a couple weeks before my owners came by and took a closer look. They kept their voices down, but I knew it wasn’t good news. I was to be put down, sent out to pasture, repurposed as an ultra-modern bookshelf, made into a tiny home, or whatever it is they do with heaps of metal like me that are never gonna roll on four wheels again. They said some nice words to me and cleaned me out really well. They get a new version of me now!…but they didn’t look excited. I knew they just wanted to keep me.
As they walked away I recalled our long, wonderful journey together. I was brand new when they found me in Milwaukee, the first new one they had ever bought. They put some leather on me and gave me hot pads so I could heat up their butts on cold upper midwest mornings. From that day on they kept me picture worthy. I was born in 2009, but looked half my age when they had to leave me in that dirt lot in 2025. I third-wheeled it on a lot of date nights until 2014 when I became the family car. The amount of gear I carried just for a one-night stay became absurd. Then another passenger arrived in 2017 and I was officially demoted from first string to second string. I couldn’t compete with the Sienna. She’s faster, greener, smoother, and has loads more storage than I do.
But retirement was good to me! I was still the date car. I was kept even cleaner than in years past! I even drove for Lyft for a little bit. Someone kindly left me some weed one night in the fold of my second row, it made my headlights droop. I still had time with the family, just for shorter drives. Back and forth to school. Back and forth to Costco. Last hurrahs? I had a number of them. A blizzardy drive to Omaha, leaving at 3am because if I waited longer, I couldn’t get through that whiteout. A guys weekend in Steamboat. I carried seven adult males up the road to Strawberry Hot Springs, my heaviest cargo yet and I was in my 14th year!
I dodged bullets, stolen vehicles, and somehow avoided break-ins and hit and runs for all of my life in Denver, only to come to a stop in Fort Collins, a much safer, calmer, cleaner city. The irony. It’s not the way I wanted to go out, but I did the very best with the miles given to me.
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