Ode to the ‘Ole Land Cruiser

On Thursday I got a call from the VIP concierge at the Toyota Dealer. “I’m calling because we want to buy your Land Cruiser.” No kidding. They called wanting to buy back my seventeen year old car. “Sorry,” I replied. “I’m keeping her forever.”
I bought that Land Cruiser as a one year old used car when Carter was just in pre-school. It has driven us to Maine, Michigan, Florida and many places in between. As I aged out of needing a big car to drive around a car pool I set her aside and got a smaller hybrid that got three times the gas mileage, but kept her for hauls to the dump or inclement weather.
I thought the call from Toyota was poorly timed since the week had been full of forecasts for snow, which we did get last night and today. If ever there was a time to have an old rhinoceros of a car it was today.
We heeded the new governor we so badly wanted to win when he declared the whole state an emergency and asked people to stay in today. I used the forced day home productively to take down all the Christmas, with the exception of the naked tree which will happen tomorrow. But we broke the rules and left the house tonight to go to DPAC and see An American in Paris.  
The DPAC never cancels a show because then they would have to refund our money. So if we can get there we are going. Our friends Christy and Lee also had tickets and got a reservation at Watts Grocery, one of the only places open tonight. They invited us to go to dinner and I offered to drive them in the ‘ole Land Cruiser.
It may not have a back up camera, or satellite radio, but it could handle the icy snow covered roads, hills and all. We may have driven slowly, but we never slipped, slid or spun our wheels once and we were toasty warm inside. That Toyota dealer is down right crazy to think I would ever get rid of the best vehicle ever made.