Like this:

barely.

she served me well, but she’s done her duty. her last highway she drove was I80; which was also the first highway I drove her out of state with in February 2006 barely a month after I brought her home.

Sitting in traffic approaching the George Washington Bridge the motor was dumping unburnt fuel out the exhaust and burning so much oil it was chapping my lips and made it hard to breathe in the cabin. Once I was able to pick up speed, I was on the infamous Cross Bronx Expressway, probably the shittiest road ever built. Once I got death wobble for the sixth time I took a deep breath and threw the hazards on and crept down the right lane at 20 mph…. which is absolute suicide- theres no shoulder or breakdown lane on either side. As if trying to slow down to a standstill with cars and trucks whizzing by at 60 mph while my front axle was about to fly out from under me wasn’t enough, NYC drivers are absolutely insane and don’t pay attention anyway and I almost got plowed into at least five times. Once I got closer to the next bridge I floored it to pick up to 70 mph which was fast enough so I didn’t get death wobble, which dumped blue smoke everywhere; but the axle still slushed around every bump and inconsistency in the road, and by the time I got home, it took almost a full turn of the wheel to even change lanes.

I have about 6 degrees of camber in my right front wheel, and theres about an inch or so of back and forth play in that wheel. The drag link ends might as well be rubber bands. I didn’t even bother to look at the crack in the frame at the steering box which is probably much worse. Besides that, I absolutely demolished the uniframe rails wheeling Liberty in Colorado, the front hubs are toast, both rear axle seals leak, and the transfer case probably has a hole in it from where its been clawing at the floorboards for the past 2,000 miles.

She’s done everything I asked, and served me well. Unfortunately she won’t see her eighteenth birthday this October or 200k. I’m gonna need another beer.