Goodbye Old Buddy

Today we traded in our car. The 12 year old Toyota Celica was getting up there in age and we wanted to trade it in while it was still worth something. It was kinda sad taking our last drive to the dealer. I know you're not supposed to get attached to material items but our car didn't always seem like just an object. It had it's own attitude and characteristics that we got to know, more like a friend. This was the little car that took us everywhere we needed to go. It was the car I learned to drive in.

Yup. That's how I drive. 

Last year this car took me back and forth to London four to five days out of the week. Sometimes it was packed full of passengers and loaded with camera equipment, despite the tiny space for seating and storage. 

We got a lot of snow last winter and though I drove through a lot of whiteouts and drifts. The snow plowed on the side of the road was higher than the car in a lot of places. 

I think I stayed home this day though...

 

It took us down many side roads for sunrises, sunsets, picnics, and sometimes just unexpected adventures like the one below...

 

Ya, that's a head scratcher. 

This is a closed road used for off roading and four-wheeling. Not for the little Celica. Well we could have made it around but someone thought it was just a little puddle.

We had to call Dad to bring out the Suburban (also sold now), to pull us out.

This car took us all over on our honeymoon. We went up near Wiarton to a cottage on the lake. Some days we would just go out and drive, not really with any plan or even knowing where we were going. We'd just drive. 

 

I hope someone buys it and enjoys it as much as we did. They will be getting a reliable vehicle and should expect kids to say "whoa, look at that cool car" as they pass by. We will miss our good little buddy, the Celica.

Wintery Blue Skies

Last week Fuzz and I went for a little drive out and about just for the heck of it. There were a couple of houses that we did purposefully put on our route. This one below is one in Arkona that Fuzz saw while doing some landscaping nearby this past summer. The weather was abnormally warm and snowless for this time of year but this winter just seems to be full of days like this. The sky was a very nice blue though.

This next house is outside of Thedford. When I was little I wanted to live here. The barn was still standing at that time and you could hardly see the house through the weeds and vines. There was an old rusty tractor that sat off to the side, also just peeking out of the creeping vegetation. Obviously someone has been doing some cleaning and clearing out here. I'm glad I took a picture of it now before the house is gone.

I like me some old crumbly houses. 

Abandoned Little Home

My sister M'lynn and I went to Bayfield today just for a drive. I've been past this place many times and often thought about stopping to take some photos, so today we did!

 

At first I was just going to take some from the road but M'lynn encouraged me to cross this fence, assuring me that she would keep watch. 

 

What a cute place! I'm sure someone loved and took care of it at one point.

 

 

 

 

 M'lynn's keeping watch skills suck. I got up to turn around and come back just in time to see a police put on his brakes and open the window. Turns out he had other priorities though. Seems that the pharmacies in our area were robbed or something like that again (I hope no one was hurt), so he just wanted to make sure nothing was wrong and point out the "no trespassing" sign.