“I was riding shotgun with my hair undone in the front seat of his car…”

I’m not normally much of a T-Swift fan but there are certain songs that get me singing. And this one makes me think of the Jeep. You’ve all heard about our Jeep by now. It’s a 1988 Wrangler in a lovely, sunny yellow – a sun painted on the hood. We got it for a great deal in Minnesota, tow package included. And it has served us well, toting us around various towns and down country roads – even saving us from almost-certain catastrophe in the middle of the desert.

And now, the conversation has come up of possibly selling it. You see, these Jeeps are coveted vehicles in certain crowds, and we could get a pretty decent price for ours if we chose to sell it out here in Cali.

So, the question came up. Do we sell the Jeep?

For all its greatness, it has its faults. At least, in daily use as our only vehicle. You see, it’s not a secure vehicle – the doors don’t lock and the windows are plastic, so we can’t keep anything of value in it. This poses an issue when we are adventuring downtown and by the beach, or pretty much anywhere.

We have been fortunate that nothing has been stolen when we’ve decided to just leave our belongings inside it. We have used a bike lock for some of the larger items or bags. But the thing is…some people just suck, and it is only a matter of time before someone steals something from the Jeep while I’m running in the store to pick up dog food.

To be fair, we have had our windows broken in other vehicles so it’s not like it won’t happen in other cars.

There is no A/C. I have lived without it in my vehicle for nearly two years now and I can tell you that it isn’t fun in the middle of summer in Southern California. But we’ve managed. Now, when I ride in a vehicle that has air conditioning, I feel a little too spoiled and a little too separated from the elements. I sometimes miss driving around without windows.

It’s loud. In order to stay cool(er), the windows must be down or off – so forget about having a conversation while you are driving down the highway. My throat has gone hoarse too many times trying this one.

It is a gas guzzler. No doubt about it. We have to put $20 in the tank every time we leave town.

It’s a bumpy ride and it only comfortably fits 2.5 people. Not to mention the fact that driving this hard-shifting manual is a killer for my nerve injury.

But…it’s the Jeep.

It is easy to hook up and get on the road, and it tows well behind the RV.

So, even though having this discussion about possibly selling it at a nice profit is appealing, part of me still hangs onto the sentimental side – the side that figured we would keep this Jeep for the rest of its life and eventually just get a second car.

Now that second car has come around. A friend found us a great deal on a little Pontiac Grand Am, and we’ve added a new addition to the family.

And guess what? It has A/C. And power widows. And a CD player. AND IT LOCKS!

For right now, this is the perfect solution to our problems with the Jeep. But what about when we want to leave here? Which one do we take? Do we try selling the Jeep because we can potentially make some money on it?

We found out that it may be possible to tow the new car dingy-style (all four wheels on the ground) instead of buying a car dolly (something we wish to avoid). But we would still need to purchase a tow package. Is it worth the headache?

As I was driving through town the other day in the new car, I saw a Jeep coming towards me and automatically raised my hand in typical Jeep-wave fashion. Only, I wasn’t in a Jeep, so I just looked like a weirdo waving at a random car.

Having a Jeep is having an entire community of people. They wave at you on the road, some going so far as to honk and stick their entire arm out the window. There’s a lingo you have to know.

It’s a Jeep thing.

So, if we do sell the Jeep, I will miss quite a few things. I will miss waving to random, excited strangers. I will miss being so high off the ground in a metal cage (I feel safer in the Jeep than I do in cars, especially after my recent accident). I will miss taking the doors and windows off the Jeep, feeling the breeze in my hair as I fly down the road. I will miss the visibility while driving – without doors and windows, you can see everything!

It’s silly to get sentimentally attached to an object and if this adventure has taught me anything, it’s that things are just things. It is just a thing – even though it came across the country with us, even though it saved us in the desert, even though it makes me feel safer.

We will just have to see what happens!

There are perks and drawbacks to both ideas and we just need to decide what the best route is for us.

We figure that we’ll throw it up online and if someone decides that they will love it as much as we do, maybe more, then it might be time to say goodbye to the Jeep.