My baby is Gone

My baby is Gone, she drove out of the garage and down Dale hollow Drive for the last time.

I found her on Ebay a little of 8 years ago, an original 1978 Ford Fairmont Futura, one owner with only 32000 miles. The car was in California, she was literally owned by a little old man who only drove her on Sundays. The car had been sitting for four years and the old man had died. He had donated his estate to his church and they were selling it.

I had lots of frequent flier miles so I got Nick and I tickets (round trip just in case) and we jetted off to San Jose to pick her up. We took a cab and picked it up and headed on home. Our first stop was Reno







Nick in the hotel garage.



We had been having trouble with overheating so a quick stop at the NAPA store and we were off on the road again with a new radiator and hoses.







I remember coming out of the mountains and seeing the sun low in the sky over the salt flats of Utah. It was a breathtakingly beautiful sight with millions of shades of yellow and orange. I woke Nick up so he could see and he looked, mumbled and went back to sleep, obviously impressed.

We made it to Wyoming and a tire started making noise and then BAM, the front left tire exploded, dry rot had struck. Luckily the spare had air and we limped to a Walmart in Evanston Wyoming where we purchased four new tires and were mobile again.







After a lunch at McDonald in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming we got into the car put the key in the ignition and it wouldn't turn. The lock had failed. It cost $150 to get a locksmith to come out and fix it.






The rest of the trip was uneventful car wise, but at the time there was drought happening in that area. I remember the fires in the distance in Eastern Wyoming/Western Nebraska. I also remember seeing a huge dust cloud ahead that we were driving into and what looked like storm clouds. Turns out it was so dry out that the rain hitting the ground actually raised a cloud of dust, amazing.



We made it home without anything else remarkable happening. It was a wonderful adventure that Nick and I will never forget (probably for different reasons) a priceless father and son moment in time. I drove that car for three years and eventually parked it with the plan of someday rebuilding it.

I'm being forced to move and I have no place to store my baby anymore so I had to sell her. It's like another dream has been crushed and I literally cried as she drove away. I'll miss that car and what she represented but I'll always have the memories.