Goodbye Undertaker, but not RIP

Rob bought the Suburban in the mid 90's when he lived in the high country (Leadville, CO) and worked over the pass in Silverthorne. He had to drive in the snow many months of the year so he prefered a 4 wheel drive. He also needed something he could sleep in when he had a late shift followed by an early shift, or whatever other reason, like 3 feet of fresh powder. Anyway, he bought it for a very reasonable price and took to it immediately. He named it the Undertaker (after - don't laugh - his favorite WWF wrestler) because it was mostly black and looked somewhat like a hearse.

When Rob and I reconnected in 1999 we planned a trip out west for the Christmas holiday and he came to pick me up in the Suburban which we then took to CA to visit his folks. His dad took one look at it and started calling it the Subdivision as it seemed to cover acreage instead of a single parking space. We didn't care. We loved it. We could road trip in it, camp out in it, and even live in it.

That's right. We lived in the Suburban. But not just lived in it. We lived in it, at a trailhead, in the deep snow of winter, at 9,200 ft. above sea level. You see, when we decided we could not live another without each other I packed up my little truck and moved to Colorado. Not prepared to buy a home yet we worked by day and slept in the Suburban by night. My new CO license even read "Trailhead at I-70 and Highway 9, Silverthorne, CO." For three months we drove into our little nest through feet after feet of fresh snow. It was cozy, mostly very warm, and downright romantic.

Later we took it to Grand Canyon to get married, then on our honeymoon to the Oregon Coast, and home again. It moved with us to Morro Bay, CA and back again after Rhetta was born. It stranded us and left us with an empty bank account more than once. I called it the Money Pit but Rob was very attached to it so when it needed a new radiator or new tires or a new engine, that's what it got.

Sometime after we settled into our home here it started to cost too much money in gas to take it to work and back every day. Then the transmission started to go out yet again. We opted to accept an economy car from Rob's folks as a gift and park the Suburban until we could afford to fix it. The house needed a new roof after all and we couldn't even afford that. And so it sat.

Until today. Today we donated it to the NPR Vehicle Donation Program. They can fix it and sell it and someone somewhere will get some use out of it, we hope. Perhaps it will go for scrap, we don't know.

To be honest I have wanted to get rid of that thing for years. Sheesh, it's just an old truck. But I'm sentimental. Today I shed a tear when I had to say goodbye.