Farewell, Faithful Friend

Last week we had our 12 year old Ford Explorer towed to the Ford dealership. Because the air conditioner in it pooped out a couple of years ago, it didn't get much driving time this summer and it did a lot of sitting on the street in front of the house. It drives well in the snow, though, so we started to get it spruced up for winter, but were having a hard time getting it started and keeping it running. Rick thought the fuel pump might have gone bad. The Ford dealership had bad news: the gas tank was filled with rusty corrosion and that had caused the fuel pump to fail. $2500 to get it back up and running. So with heavy hearts, we signed the title over to Ford.

I kinda get why people get attached to cars and park them in places of honor on the lawn and let them rust into eternity. That was the first car I bought all on my own. I took it to Iceland with me. It drove me and my friends (including my new friend Rick Smiley) all over Iceland: up mountains, across fjords, over glaciers.
This is the Explorer on Snaefellsjokel. According to Jules Vern, the entrance to the center of the Earth is around here somewhere.

Our favorite Explorer story was when we took it camping at Thorsmork. There was a glacial river between the road and the campground and when we pulled up, a little Icelandic guy came out of the lodge, motioned to a huge tractor and rope on his side of the river, and hollered over to us in broken English that if we got stuck in the river he could probably tow us out. With Rick's coaching, I drove slowly and steadily across the river, glancing down to notice how high the water came up on the doors, and we made it! That afternoon, when we hiked to the top of a nearby mountain I took a picture of my proud Explorer next to a crazy Icelandic tour bus with huge all-terrain tires.

Its next great adventure was as a family car.
It transported my babies home from the hospital and Will to his first day of school.

Part of me sort of wishes we had forgone little luxuries like groceries and health insurance for a little while and poured ridiculous amounts of money into the Explorer to keep it running. Part of me is sort of happy that it will probably become an organ donor of sorts, donating its good parts to other cars in need at the Ford dealership.