Car Tale

I like my car. It's a Pathfinder, black. I named it Martin. There's a story about that. It starts with my previous Pathfinder.

Holmes was my first car. It was an 88 Pathfinder, 2 door, maroon. My dad brought it home. I was distressed. I hated driving and I didn't know how to drive a manual transmission. But once I got the feel for it, I began to enjoy it. I started going fourwheeling on the BLM land near the house. That was my favorite. Before long the sides were scratched from branches along the trails and I often neglected washing it because I like the look of mud spatters. I would teach my friends how to drive stick in Holmes. He was a good car for learning.

The summer between my Junior and Senior year in High School Finding Nemo came out. As we all know, this is a fantastic movie, so I saw it twice in the same week. I rarely go to the theater twice for the same movie. After I dropped my friend off at her house, I headed home along highway 6 & 24 which borders I-70. I was doing the speed limit pretty much exactly; 55. Ahead I saw another car approaching. It seemed to be going slowly and I saw the lights flicker. I thought it was due to the dips in the road. I slowed down a little as I approached, the lights were blinding me. Then, ahead I saw shadowy shapes. Big ones. I slammed on the brakes as I hit a herd of cattle at 50 miles per hour. Cows went flying. It was really rather like bowling. There was certainly some sickening crunching. After my car stopped moving I turned it off. Yes, I'd hit the clutch, not killing the engine after all of that. I did, however, kill three cows. I also wounded another. And I nearly got fined because Colorado is a free range state, but I escaped that one.

My brother rebuilt the front of Holmes and because he'd used junkyard pieces, Holmes needed to be repainted. I got to choose the color and of course I chose orange.

Holmes was very unique. I had the only orange Pathfinder I've ever seen. And I had this car until just last year. The age just started catching up to him and I couldn't afford to keep fixing things and taking the bus to work etc. So I asked my dad to help me find a replacement. Thus Martin.

Martin is an upgrade by 7 years and 2 doors. However, it's a downgrade by color. Black is a very hot color. But he's doing very well despite the broken odometer and speedometer and reverse lights.

Oh, the names. It's sort of convoluted, the connections. Holmes, like Sherlock. The new BBC series Sherlock stars Martin Freeman as John Watson. So there you have it.