Rental Car Love

Yeah ... this is going to be an odd post. James told me on the ride home from school today that he didn't like Pepe (our jeep, named after the jeep in Romancing the Stone of course) and that he loved the rental car. He was almost crying telling me how much he missed and loved the rental car.

Here's the story ...

So, on Sunday, we're driving to church and we hit a pothole. A big pothole. Then when we pull into the church parking lot, a man tells Doug, "You have a lot of fluid coming out of your car." Turns out we did - lots of green fluid. Of course Doug knew that this was coolant leaking and also was able to quick fix the car by hooking the hose back up in place and was able to arrive into church without being gross from being in the engine of the car. . . . My husband is handy and I love it.

Anyway, so Monday, James does not go to school but comes with me all the way up to the 'burbs to the Jeep dealership to get the car fixed. I wasn't sure how long it was going to take - driving up there and getting a rental and getting back to school - so I just took James with me. When we got to the dealership, James was all over the place. I had to call Enterprise for a rental car because the dealership was out of loaners. I thought the 20 minutes they quoted me was going to feel like an eternity because really, what was James going to do at a car dealership?

And then I realized, James loves to pretend drive and this is the perfect place! Look at how happy our child is driving this car!

I was so afraid that James was going to honk the horn - he didn't thank goodness. When the rental car person showed up James was not having it - he actually went into lock down mode with his arms right against his sides and refused to move. It was interesting. Then we get into the rental car ...

I was hoping this wasn't our car. It was a little tiny Chevy with manual window rollers and locks. It shook when we accelerated. It was a blast from the past. My estimates would place this bad boy Early 90s. Turns out my options were a huge van - like a party van - or this little Chevy. We went with the Chevy.

On the way home, we got off the highway (and all the while I'm just praying that we make it home and wondering if I should have taken the party van) and we drive by the fire house which of course has all of its Engines and Ambulances getting refueled and James is asking me to roll down his window so he can see outside. We usually do this in the jeep all the time but I had to explain to him that these windows were roll down and that Mommy couldn't do it from her seat. I promised to show him and let him try when we got home.

James LOVED the manual window roller. Loved it. A lot. He was so enthralled with it he proclaimed, "Mom J loves this car!" and followed with an emotionally intense mock window roll. So we run our errands in it on Tuesday and James again, proclaims his love for the car and plays with the windows.

I know the photos are dark - but this is James rolling down the window

From the other side of the window - he loved that he could watch it go up and down

Today, while James was in school, I took his love, the rental car, back to the dealership for the rental company to get and picked up our car.  When I picked him up, James was showing everyone his manual window rolling skills. After explaining the situation, everyone laughed and one Mom said, "James you have a special first hand knowledge of cars that not many of your friends will have. The manual window is a special thing." We all were laughing.

When we got outside, James was not happy when he saw Pepe. The whole way home he told me how much he didn't like Pepe and how much he loved and missed the rental car. At least I took this photo with my cell phone - now he can always remember the fond times with the window roller :)