a jeep named biscuit

Saturday, February 12th, 2011 at 11:31 pm

Biscuit is my 1980 CJ5 Jeep. And I really, really like her.

Biscuit is short for Hibiscus, which Joe couldn’t say when he was little so it always came out biscuit. So when I decided to call my Jeep Hibiscus, it was a no brainer that she’d be nicknamed the Biscuit.

The little guys think she’s a giant toy just for them. She does kinda have a play with me look. Although we’ve had her for years now, she’s still a pretty big deal. When Ryan started her up the other day some of the younger boys just stood in awe, mouths wide open.

She’s a pretty cool little ride. But it’s taken a while to get her where she is.

You know how you sometimes make a bad decision. And you kinda know it in the back of your mind like a 2 year old knows not to put a Hot Wheels car in your drink but he does it anyway even knowing there will likely be consequences?

Buying the Biscuit 2 1/2 years ago was a very toddler thing for us to do. We wanted it the way we wanted it and we wanted it that way RIGHTNOW. Not our most glorious decision ever. But, buy her we did. And have her we do.

And she was so much fun for about 2 weeks. Then, the pretty much totally predictable thing happened. She’s 30 years old. She needed upkeep. A leak here, a tweak there.

It’s a good thing my husband is mechanically inclined.

What Ryan found in all his tweaking was that there was a little more tweaking that needed to be done.
And a lot of part repair that needed to be done.
And a whole lot of part replacement that needed to be done.
We toyed with selling her, even listed her for sale once, but more issues kept popping up and we decided that we couldn’t. It just didn’t feel right to us, selling her in the condition she was in.

Our only option was to lose a ton of money on her, or take the time to make her awesome. We decided on the latter.

Heh heh.

So, the Biscuit has been out of commission for a while. Like, pretty much the whole time we’ve had her. Almost.

However, little by little…
Very little by little…
Like 2 1/2 years of little by little…
We’ve managed to save our pennies to purchase new parts, refurbished parts, junk yard parts…
And this weekend she is finally fixed up and just about ready to drive.

In fact, Ryan actually pulled her out of the garage and took her for a spin in the cul-de-sac yesterday. Even though the tabs are a year and a half expired.

He’s such a rebel.

She still needs a little tweaking. And we’re short a couple of seat belts. And tags. But she purrs like a kitten.

I don’t know much about cars.
Okay, I’ll admit that I don’t know anything about cars except where the gas and brake pedals are. You should see me try to turn on the van’s windshield wipers if it starts to rain while I’m out and about. I think it’s probably comical even though I’ve never laughed about it myself.

But even though I’ve not been gifted with any mechanical intelligence, I do know the Biscuit sounds tons better than she did when we first got her.

And all thanks to my husband who’s put the needs of his Harley behind the needs of my Jeep.

My Jeep is running. I’m getting a new baby. And I had a Roy Rogers drink today.

I’m feeling a little bit spoiled right about now!