First Cars

The first car meme that went around recently naturally made me think about my first car.  I wrote something about it a while back, but had forgotten it's demise. 

I mentioned it while talking to an old friend the other day and he brought up the day it died.  Jim and I were toddlers together and managed to grow through discovering we weren't built alike and the even more interesting discovery of what that meant and remain friends throughout.

On this occasion I was meeting some friends, including Jim, over at the Colorado River for some water-skiing.  A few weeks before this trip I had visited LBB and found a box of his old books that I ripped off.  It consisted of lots of Travis McGee, Matt Helm, Modesty Blaise, etc.  and I was still working my way through the box when I decided to make this trip.  Being one of those people who never go anywhere without some reading material, I threw a couple of the books in my duffle.

Now mind you, I received the Opel GT as a getting your DL  (or Yay, no more being a chauffeur!) present, drove it through college and then some, having some excellent adventures along the way, and by the time this happened it was pretty well...well, I believe the expression is clapped out. Because it was no longer reliable I had already bought a new car, but had not been able to make myself give up the Opel GT.  So I kept it and drove it here and there, now and then.

Got over to the river and was having a great time.  While relaxing, in the book I was reading I came across a section in which the good guy driving an MGB and being chased by the bad guy on a gravel road in the desert makes a speedy turn around.

In the book it said that a 70mph on a gravel road in an MGB you could turn in its tracks and within a second be going in the opposite direction at the same speed.  (Clutch, out of gear, spin the wheel, back in same gear, pop clutch, floor it).

As I read that a thought occurred to me.  An MGB and an Opel GT are not so different that what is possible in one would be impossible in the other. 

You see where this is going, don't you?

I poked Jim and read that section to him.  And saw the light bulb go off over his head, too.  (He was then and remains a horrible influence.  Not a sensible bone in his body.)

We were in the perfect place, too, as that area was desert with lots of little gravel roads running through it.

It was on the fourth attempt that we rolled it.  Not really sure how we crawled out, but you know what they say about God and fools.

It was pretty mangled and there was really nothing to be done.  As far as I know it's still there, a monument to Matt Helm.