Harvery

I have always been someone who likes quirky cars.  My first car was a 1987 VW Golf.  Her name
was Patty and I loved her.  I loved her hatchback, I loved her crank sunroof, and I even loved when there was a short in the horn causing it to honk every time I turned the wheel.  Well, unless I was searching for a parking spot at the college dorms.  That was embarrassing. I said the only way I'd ever get rid of Patty is for a VW Cabrio.  So that's what happened.

Enter Lilly.  My dad located this lavender Cabrio my freshman year in college.  I wasn't sure about the color at first.  I mean, I like quirky, but that seemed a little much. But after owning Lilly, I really grew to love her lavender-ness. I really loved everything about Lilly.  I still miss her, especially on beautiful sunny days.

I love driving and I have so many fond memories with my friends, or just driving alone with the sunroof or top down, music blaring, and enjoying life. I really bonded with my cars and felt like they were an extension of me. So when I got married and we decided we needed something bigger and more reliable it was pretty rough. When we asked about trading in Lilly they said they'd scrap her. This was my dearest friend and I couldn't bear it, so we found a young girl who bought her for $500. At least I know she'd bring a little happiness to someone else for a while.

Jane.  Jane was a Jeep Patriot.  Perhaps her name is indicative of how I felt from her from day one.  Plain Jane. She served her purpose, but she was nothing special. I compare Jane to a college roommate. We were brought together by circumstance; we got along just fine and even had a few good times, but let's be honest, when this period of life is over we're going our separate ways and probably won't really keep in touch.

When Jane started showing her age (or her cheapness), it was time to consider what to do next. Like many a former VW fan I had turned my eyes on the Mini Cooper, but that doesn't necessarily fit the suburban mom lifestyle. I had just had a baby and it would make sense to size up as we were now a family of five, so I looked at all kinds of options that had third row seating. I had convinced myself that the benefits of the extra seating would be worth driving a very suburban SUV. You know, the kind with all the attributes of a van while refusing to actually be a van. I even test drove one.  But then I thought I'd test drive a Mini just to see if we could fit. Any you know what... Mini must know about suburban moms in denial. They made the Countryman just for us.  It has four doors, it seats 5, I could even fit the stroller in the back, but it still has all the character of a Mini. When we test drove it, they handed me the keys and said, "Take your husband. Put the car seats in and take your kids." So we did.  We all went for a test drive and I fell in love. I'll save you the details that followed, but suffice it to say, I ended up with Harvey. 

Harvey is everything I would want in a car. The kids love Harvey because he's fun and my husband loves Harvey because he's fun to drive. We have taken him on trips to Oklahoma with all five of us with no complaints. Yes, it's good to be in denial. So, to the "not a van" SUV that I probably should be driving, we will talk again in a few years. For now, it's me and Harvey (and the kids in the back seat) and I couldn't be happier.