Bye-bye Birdie

This week has been the end of an era for me.  I sold my 2002 Thunderbird. This car has a bit of a story, so bear with me.  My late husband was a Ford dealer and I never lacked for a nice car to drive, yet cars never excited me.  When he passed away in 2000 I sold my big house and moved to a smaller house in the next town.  I had to pass the Ford dealership to get to my new home.  Abut a year after I moved I saw this car parked on the lot, right next to the driveway and I fell in love.  I thought it was the prettiest car I had ever seen, but did I really need two cars???  It was just a two seater with a tiny trunk and very impractical.  It could never be my only car. I drove by it every day for two weeks and drooled.  Then it was gone. Whew!  Temptation over.  About two weeks later they put in another one, so one Sunday when the dealership was closed I drove onto the lot and looked inside. Not only was the exterior this luscious color of Robin's-Egg-Blue (one of my favorite colors) but the interior had the same colored leather.  The next day I went into the dealer, took a test drive and bought it.

I had taken photos of it when it was new, but I couldn't find them and had to settle for this picture taken at the dealership.  I had so much fun with this car and it attracted a lot of attention.  I did get used to coming back to my car in the grocery store parking lot or anywhere else and have people standing and admiring it.  Most people didn't know what was, being a reproduction of sorts of the original 1958 T-bird.You could take the hard top off and there is a soft top underneath.  I've never been a convertible type person so I never had the hard top off. 

I said I was going to keep it forever or until it started to be a money pit.  And that's what was starting to happen.  Although I had less than 35,000 miles on it, it was 13 years old and things started to go and I was getting pricey repair bills. I also had trouble fitting the two cars in my garage.  It was time to let go. I truly will miss it. 

Here is the beautiful interior.  You can see why I was hooked.

I never had vanity plates before, but this car called for them.  As a kid I never had a pet except for gold fish and one turquoise parakeet, who said "Pretty Bird".  You're only allowed 6 digits in Connecticut so this was as close as I could get.

 I sold it to the dealership and they will put it on their lot.  I just hope that whoever buys it loves it as much as I did and takes as good care of it. It was in mint condition.