Goodbye Baby

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to mourn the passing of our Baby.

I will never forget the first time I saw Baby.  Sandpebble beige exterior, soft cloth seats.  Back seat large enough for two child seats.  Tape deck player in the radio console, what a joy!  Cup holders!  And that "new car" smell.

Yrs, the 1995 Toyota Corolla was a wonderful car.  Easy to handle, good gas mileage.

Baby and I shared a lot of miles.  Almost 197,000 miles.  Wish we could have made it to 200,000, but alas ...

I'll never forget the road trips to Colonial Williamsburg and to Hersheypark when the kids were little. Then later, the trips to Boston and Rhode Island as the girls explored their college options.  The last big trip the Baby took me on was to Jen's college graduation in 2012.

But...an aging Corolla ...I could live with  the engine noise and how that car burned oil.  How ice got into the door locks in winter, freezing the doors shut.  And that  the rear door on the passenger side sometimes needed to be locked by hand because the automatic lock didn't always work.  I could live with the peeling paint on the hood.

I could not live with a broken exhaust pipe.  A repair that  would cost more than the value of the car itself.

So Baby is gone.  She was a good car.  But now it's time to let her go.