*Originally posted September 21st, 2019

6 years ago I walked into the dealership and did whatever it took to get this Jeep.

I grew up in a car family. It was a joke on our street about how it seemed like one of us was outside washing a vehicle every day. My Dad takes extremely pristine care of his vehicles and instilled that onto me and my brother. But the other thing he taught us by example was to LOVE what you drive.

Six years ago I was driving a brand new Dodge Avenger. It was a nice car. Sporty, good gas mileage, all the bells and whistles but I didn’t “love” it. Truth is, I missed bouncing around town with some over-sized tires and that was actually FUN to drive.

So, one Saturday morning I left the house to go browse cars and before the end of the day I was driving this bad boy off the lot.

My rule: Life is too short to not drive something that you LOVE.

And this Jeep is just that.
No matter how impractical it may be, or bouncy or loud, I can honestly say that it makes me happy every time I drive it.

My birthday is coming up and that particular year, this Jeep was what I bought myself as a gift. At the time, I was working my fingers to the bone at a job that was literally sucking the life out of me so I looked for something I could control. And what I drove was it. I was making good money, it made no sense not to drive what I wanted.

There you have it, Just a girl and her Jeep. This beast and I have been through some serious shit over the past 6 years, let me tell you. From countless road trips, a lot of tears, total rebuilds, photoshoots, Smokey mountain trail riding, rock crawling, trying to show up all the boys and driving through a pond with water up to the windows, adventuring to brave an Iowa winter, and more backroad, windows down cruises than I can count.
This ol’ girl and I, we’re in it together.
Happy Jeepiversary ♡.