The Find

Some Jeep enthusiasts say that you don't find the Jeep, but that the Jeep finds you!

I think there is some truth to that statement...My wife Cathi and I have been talking about getting a Jeep Wrangler as a fun weekend vehicle to take our Lab puppy to the beach and cruise around in the sunny Florida weather...Cathi always reminisces about the days when she lived in California and had a 97 Wrangler and how she had her sun-faded baseball cap with her blond hair tucked underneath...

I can only imagine how many other guys that attracted...Listening to her talk about it always made me wonder how much fun it would be to own a Jeep Wrangler...I had an old 99 Jeep Cherokee and I loved the ruggedness of it, but if you can't take off the doors, then what's the fun?!

Cathi had a 04 Jeep Grand Cherokee and we both loved that one, it was nice but could still handle over the bumps off road. Then we got rid of both of them and got an 06 Jeep Commander...It was decked out with all the toys and nice leather, but I don't much care for having a Jeep that nice...I like the fact that I can leave the top off on the rain and run over some broken down trees and not worry about scratching the paint...

Any who, back to this Jeep finding me thing...We had gotten rid of the Commander because of the gas crunch and a long work commute...I found myself driving a decked out minivan and a Civic Hybrid...WATCH OUT LADIES, HERE I COME!!! Then a few days before my birthday, Cathi calls me and says she has found me a Jeep. She proceeded to flood my head with images of a jacked up, lifted Wrangler with no doors and big Mickey Thompson tires..."It has a loud exhaust and a bikini top!" she exclaims...Unfortunately it was not for sale...Cathi didn't much care, she asked her friend what she wanted for the Jeep...This caught her friend off guard because the Jeep had about 2 inches of leaves in the floorboard and RCA home speakers zip-tied to the under portion of the dash and around the cabin...

Cathi's friend Kim had the Jeep, which technically belonged to her husband, for about eight years...They said it ran rough but was dependable...For days after Cathi mentioned it, my stupid head filled with images of muddy tires and clicking ratchets...Finally, I had the opportunity to have a toy to play with in the garage besides the humming sound of a civic hybrid...and the gigantic cabin of a minivan...

Cathi brought me back down to earth when she said they were not interested in selling the Jeep, but would talk it over and let us know by the weekend...It was all I talked about the rest of the week...Saturday came around and the word was in...$3000 cash and it was ours....I drove as fast as I could to the bank and got the cash...I didn't want them to change their mind before I got the title...I picked the Jeep up that night and took it to my birthday dinner with Cathi and her sister....

It is a 1991 Jeep Wrangler...It has a 4-inch lift, Mickey Thompson 32 and 1/2 inch tires on Pacer rims; Ranchos shock (the front ones are missing the bushings)...The loud exhaust I found out was a rusted out muffler and it has only 101,600 miles...

The best part about my new old Jeep...It drives like a Jeep...