A Visit from The Bunny

About 8 months after we started dating, Ryan convinced me to get up at some ridiculous time like 4am to drive to Connecticut and pick up his new "toy"...a 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit. It was pretty mint at the time, only had about 60k miles and had the original paint, seats, everything. There was not a tear in the seats and the carpet even looked brand new. To be perfectly honest, I was not terribly thrilled with the new purchase because even though he got a great deal on it, I knew he was going to be pouring money into it in short order. Soon enough, the bunny had new paint, exhaust, rims, luggage rack, etc etc. I even chipped in and got custom floor mats for Christmas one year. Soon enough, we decided to sell my Toyota (still kicking with my brother in law on daily trips to Mass!) and the bunny became Ryan's daily driver. It was a small car, but solid.



We ended up buying a townhouse in 2006 and it came with an uphill "s" shaped driveway. Nearly impossible to get up in the Jetta, which I was now driving. In fact, my poor neighbors had to bail me out and push me up the remainder of the hill that I couldn't climb several times last year. So, a few days before Christmas '07, we decided to buy a car with all wheel drive. This way, when it was snowing I could drop Ryan at work 5 minutes away and continue down to Lowell, MA for my job. Our little parking lot did not have enough room for 3 cars, so the time came when Ryan decided to part with the bunny.

He posted it on eBay and immediately had a buyer...a kid in college in Rhode Island. He and his friend drove up with a banker's check and picked up. We were initially weary...would this kid really take care of the bunny like Ryan did? Needless to say, it was a sad moment when the bun drove out of our driveway for the last time last February '08.

I got home from work this past Friday to find Ryan in the garage with a pile of car stuff. Apparently, the new owner had called and was stopping by on the way back from Vermont to pick up some extra stuff (accessories for the bunny) he didn't take when he bought it.

I asked Ryan, "Are you going to be sad?"

He said, "Jeez, Kendra. I hadn't even thought of that." Oops.

Soon after, the unmistakeable sound of the exhaust came up over the hill. The bunny looked great! The new owner loves it and has driven it over 20k miles in the last year... it is now pushing 100k and still running strong. The best thing was that he kept everything the same as Ryan had it, all his stickers, everything. Other than a funky front left wheel, the bunny looked fantastic...thankfully! It was a great hobby for several years, Ryan poured a lot of energy into that little car. It is nice to see that it lives on and is being enjoyed as a "daily driver" 24 years after it was made.

Here is a photo of the bunny (with Ryan and his Dad) in it's glory days....winner of the local VW show for "Best Daily Driver".

So, all in all...good stuff. What a cool visit!