I remember Bern telling me that his dad found this T-Bird as a used car – ‘little old lady, widow, almost never driving it. almost no miles on it’ – but he did not recall that, and the dealer’s search showed only two owners – presumably us and Bern’s dad. So who knows…
What we do know is that when Dad retired, he passed the car on to Bernie. It was an absolutely luxurious vehicle, with air conditioning and a sun roof and a smooth ride that made it easy to get going 90 on the open highways of New Mexico without realizing it. We have 15 years of happy memories, both travel-oriented and otherwise (for those who are wondering – yes, a 135-pound Great Pyrenees can climb out through the sunroof of a 96 T-Bird!). However, we had determined when we bought my car that the next step would be to let our aging T-Bird go, and replace it with a small truck that could handle our everyday carting-things-around needs.
Bittersweet, to let go this last memory of Bern’s dad in our daily lives, which also carries so much of our history with Phobos and Calysto, but it was time. So, having paid off the Honda a few months early, we got moving forward on trading the TBird in on a truck.
Not as simple as it seems. American car makers have stopped making small trucks. Toyota and Nissan are about the only players, and what they consider ‘small’ trucks would have been considered huge a decade or two ago. The combination of options we selected was unusual, so they had to factory order it. Cool, in that this truck has been slated for Bernie since it was issued a VIN – but it also meant a three-month wait.
Having finally picked the thing up, the first order of business was obvious. We had picked up fantasy draft magazines wile we waited for the detailers to get done with it, so off to waterfront park for a little tailgating!
Then, of course, homeward – with a stop at Tim and Molly’s (’cause you can’t get a brand new truck and not take the best next-door-neighbors in town on a joyride. That would be just plain wrong…)
Farewell to our good and trusty T-Bird – and welcome to Bernie’s man-machine. 
(and… word to the wise… apparently, if you tease him too much about that lovely shade of blue, it makes him cranky. One [OK maybe three or four] comments about how well that truck would look with Seahawk plates on it, and he’s all “I am going to have it painted orange and white!”)
