Blue has gone to the scrapyard in the sky. Well, more like a scrapyard outside of Johnstown, PA.
That would be Blue, my buddy Wooly's Jeep.
In our hierarchy of convention vehicles, there are only four of note.
#4: An honorable mention to our buddy George's brand new Dodge Avenger. Technically it was only our first pilgrimage to Crazy Egor's in Rochester, New York. It was truly the last hurrah for the high school gaming group and it involved me going over 110 mph and a 6'8" black New York statie who was pulling speeding cars over with his bare hands. And no, those two actions weren't associated with one another.
#3: Wooly's first car, I believe, was a Chevy Cavalier (or Corsica, they were kinda interchangable). It was the first con-mobile to go up to Buffalo for UBCon. It was the first vehicle to have a giant Elmo stick it's head out the window and terrorize other motorists on the Southern Tier Expressway (Rt 17).
#1: The Duster, as in my '86 Plymouth Duster of legend. Dammit, not only does my car deserve it's own post, there are enough stories to warrant its own blog! When Phil isn't shaking, I may tell them.
So that make Blue #2 on the list. Wooly's Jeep was his second car purchase, and right off the bat it was going to special, especially when the dealer sticker on the back can be altered to read Murray Motors, Hell, PA.
Blue was our main mode of transportation to cons. Not the comfiest ride for 4+ hour road trips, but there was plenty of room.
This is a vehicle we left our friend Scott to a biker gang at a rest stop.
Hell, the guys drove off-road across the campus of the University of Buffalo at night with no lights on, only to emerge out of brush, right along side a New York State Police cruiser, whose occupant must have been either asleep or oblivious. They crept away, with no one being the wiser of their actions.
Heck, this is the vehicle that Wooly and I drove to Toronto to visit the guys at Global Games. At Canadian Customs we were nearly detained because (a) we couldn't decide if the trip was business or pleasure and (b) Wooly had a "Violator" action figure of Spawn fame dangling from the rear view mirror, and the customs official either thought it was alive or it was so cool he wanted more time to look at it.
This is only one of two vehicles I ever slept in, instead of paying for a room at a conn.(Dexcon '96 in Edison). One sweaty night with Wooly was enough for me!
Blue is the only vehicle I know of to be blown up as a result of a LARP. Some of the bombs from my Illuminati University LARP at the Garden State Games Faire somehow ended up inside the front wheel wells of his Jeep and forgotten. When Wooly tried to leave Sunday morning, he turned the wheel to pull out of his parking spot and heard multiple loud pops as the tires crushed the fake bombs. Oddly enough it was the next Games Faire where his front axel, or tie rods, or something snapped in the parking lot. Eerie conicidence, or cosmic fate, you decide.
In the years since, Wooly did what any Jeep enthusiast does: lift the Hell out of it and take it on trail runs, which he and his wife Jenny have been doing on a regular basis. Earlier this year they took the old girl out, ran a few obstacle tests, and one of the Jeep's tires blew. Ultimately Blue flipped backwards and landed on it's roof. With a driveway full of other Jeeps, plus a Willy's project in the garage, they decided the time was right to salvage as many parts and profits from it and scrap her.
Rest well in scrap heaven, old buddy. Thanks for the memories.
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