Gold 1, Four Years Later

Gold 1- the legend.  Note the Calgary Flames logo on the hood

Four years ago today, I lost something very dear to me- and I haven't been whole since.  That's right: Gold 1, my beloved Toyota Matrix, was totaled in 2010, a victim of black ice.  This post reflects on who she was, and what she meant to me.  Reader, proceed only if you're prepared to weep openly.

Beginnings

Gold 1 was my first car. I bought her in the summer of 2003- but she was a 2004 Toyota Matrix, Solar Yellow. My mom and I were looking at cars; I wasn't interested in a Toyota, but mom encouraged me to stop by the local dealer. The Matrix didn't catch my eye at first, but I test-drove it. The interior was quite roomy- much more so than I expected- and the back seats folded down flat with the trunk, for a lot of hauling capacity. I grudgingly started to like the car. We ended up getting it, and picked it up a few days later.  I still remember driving it that first day. I drove to my grandparents to show them; I was so proud. It handled much better than the car I had driven in high school- my parent's Dodge Stratus. And, it was bright yellow- you could see her coming from a mile away (I never once lost her in a parking lot). I named her Gold 1- after a Star Wars Y-wing spacecraft- and I cherished her.

The original Gold 1 (Star Wars Episode IV)

Adventures

Gold 1 and I shared many adventures over the years.  The highlights:

August 2003: A few months after buying Gold 1, I started my full-time job.  She was there to move me to Maryland and help me through the transition.  She was reliable as always.

July 2004: Road trip!  My first true road trip in her, from MD, through VA, WV, KY, and IN to visit my Pop-pop.

July 2004: she loved this road trip (and the Stonewall Jackson museum)

July 2004: Hiking in the Shenandoah!  She loved the woods . . .

July 2004: A baby bear ran right by her . . . Goldie never flinched

August 2004: Road trip again!  Mom and I went to South Carolina via the Blue Ridge Parkway to attend a family wedding in South Carolina.

August 2004: she couldn't get enough of the Blue Ridge Parkway

April 2005: I proposed to my (future) wife, Beth, in the car.  She said yes, but the ring wasn't enough; my beloved Calgary Flames logo had to come off the hood.  Also, the pope died that day.

Beth removing the logo . . . I'm still smarting

October 2005: Wedding!  Beth and I drive off in, you guessed it, Goldie.

October 2005: driving off as husband and wife

July 2007: Moving!   We moved to Germany in 2007, and Gold 1 moved with us.  Naturally.

2007-2009: Europe!  Gold 1 drove us through Germany, France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Austria. So dependable . . . so loving . . .

at a military cemetery in Belgium

on a car ferry in Germany

parked next to a canal in the Netherlands

January 2010: Baby!  As one of her final acts, Gold 1 escorted my daughter, Natalie, home from the hospital, then to the doctor a few days later.

January 2010: bringing home Natalie from the hospital

5 February 2010: Crash!  I slid on the ice into a thicket on the way to work that Friday morning. Even in what would be her final act, she protected me- she slid into the thicket backwards, cushioning me from any impact.

February 2010: the crash site

Reflections

Gold 1 was to me as the Millenium Falcon was to Han Solo; the best hunk of junk in the galaxy.  An insult towards her was one towards me; we were in it together.

Over the years, as work and life got busier, I neglected her more and more; the washings and cleanings grew less frequent, talking to her grew sparser. Though the initial glow waned, she always appeared as a constant; I dreamed of driving my kids around in her, and them being excited to sit in that bright yellow beauty.  Alas, the things that will never be!

She never gave me any problems; most of her issues were my own making:
- busted tail light (I had backed into a parked car, on the ice, in MD)
- flat tire (I drove over a screw)
- bent front license plate (from rear-ending a person in Wiesbaden, Germany)
- dead battery (after 6 years, not unexpected)
- busted front bumper, front quarter panel, door handle, and apparently more outside of Wiesbaden, Germany (thus causing her demise)

That's it- 6+ years, 122,437 miles, 9 countries, 13 states, no major issues. Just a stupid ice patch that I should have avoided.

As I sit here now, four years later, I still can't help feeling as though a part of me is lost. Why?  It was "just a car."  It could simply be this: the car was with me from singleness through marriage and fatherhood, from post-college through career, from the USA through Europe, through all of the ups and downs one can expect to experience in this world. It was always a bright spot (literally), whether or not the world was bright around it.  A constant bright spot in the (occasional) darkness of life.  Gold 1, I miss you.  Long may you ride.