Happy Valentines Day from Miss Mopar

It's Valentines Day. My Facebook newsfeed is full of photos of engagement rings, red roses, champagne, and heart shaped chocolates. If you follow my Miss Mopar page, I can promise that amidst the lovey-dovey pictures of couple with captions expressing their love on your newsfeed, you will see a picture of me and The Little Black Dress. Why? Because as we celebrate love, there is nothing worth mentioning more, to me at least, than my 1972 Dodge Charger. 

My friends and sisters will see my post, laugh, and then list names of eligible bachelors with multiple traits checking off key points on my list of characteristics held by "the perfect man". My grandmom will joke that she hopes to live long enough to see me get married and someone will likely advise that I "cut back on the car posts" to stop intimidating the men I've dated. After all of that, and after receiving a bunch of texts starting with "so-and-so told me to text you, they said we might hit it off", I'll wander out to the garage with my dad and find some Mopar to tinker on. 

It's been my experience that it takes more to power a Mopar than a V8 and some gasoline. It takes love. Love for the hobby, love for the car, love for the manicurist that fixes all of my finger nails that the restoration claims. Right now, I am in a place in my life where I find contentment in fixing old Dodges. I find my self worth when they fire up for the first time. I find my fulfillment when I cruise down open roads, the rumble of the engine providing the soundtrack to my own personal RomCom. I've tweeted this many times and I still believe it to be true- "I will know love when I look at a man and feel what I feel when I looked at the Little Black Dress." 

Now, to be clear- my Dodge and I don't share the type of romantic love that Valentines Day is meant to represent, obviously. But, the idea of this post is that I've never needed validation in the form of flowers or chocolates...I get it in the form of my Mopar. And for right now, though I often claim to be "an aspiring housewife," I prefer it that way. So to those alone today, and even to those celebrating with significant others, we dedicate time and patience and love to our hobby of automotive restorations, why not celebrate that as well! Love is something that most people spend their whole life chasing, but this year...I'm gonna drive it. I'm gonna slip behind the wheel of The LBD, smile as the aroma of carbureted exhaust fumes embrace me like open arms...and drive. Like always, my heart will feel full.

I wish all my sweethearts who follow along with my page, and their Mopars, a very Happy Valentines Day!  💞

Happy Jeep Anniversary, Haylie!

Many of you who have followed me for some time now know that my enthusiasm for the Mopar brand is passionately rooted in family. The very first magazine article ever written about me was titled "A Family Affair," an accurate summation of how my Miss Mopar page came to be. The day I parked my pre-restored Dodge in between my dads Chrysler 300 and Dodge Challenger far out signifies the day I finished the resto or the day I won my first trophy. Why? Because it's about family. It's about sitting around a cooler behind your car on sweaty summer afternoons at car shows...with your family. It's about late nights in the garage trying to meet a deadline, cursing misplaced tools or bolts...with your family. It's about winning that trophy, collecting it from the car show chairmen, and turning to see the proud faces and applauding hands...of your family. 

My youngest sister is eight years younger than me. When our mom passed away, she was thirteen years old, and though I would never compare myself to the role our wonderful mother played in our lives...I felt obliged to try to be the best role model possible for her. I packed her school lunches, went to back to school nights, and ever took her for her drivers exam. I stood behind the shades in the DMV and held back tears at the sight of her disappointment when she failed the first time. I jumped up and down on the snowy sidewalk when she passed. Moral of the story- I'm far more invested in my baby sister than most others would be. That's what makes this blog post so important. 

One year ago today, after my dad got off work, my baby sister headed to a town not far where we picked up the Power Wagon to look at a 2000 Jeep Cherokee for sale. She had wanted one for a while and after a few failed excursions to find the perfect Jeep, I was hopeful that this attempt would be the last. Shortly after I got home from work, my sister, in all her glory, drove up the drive way in a junky old Jeep Cherokee. The window was being held up by a block of wood, the visor was missing, and a bad wrist pin seemed to tap in unison to oil splashing on the snowy driveway. Some probably wondered why she picked this Jeep but why she picked it didn't matter. What mattered was that it was hers. 

In the last year, Haylie worked hard to begin the process of transforming her Cherokee into the Jeep she had always dreamed off. She painted the bumpers and the wheels, added a bit of a lift, and customized the rear glass with decals representing her favorite bands and hobbies. Of course, my dad and uncle worked hard to get it mechanically sound. What was once a junky Craigslist find is now a Jeep that I am proud to park beside in our driveway. 

Watching Haylie's dedication and passion for her Jeep evolve has been heart warming. I assure you all that there is not a cleaner Cherokee this side of the Atlantic. I'm faithful that her automotive love will some day yield one hell of a restoration...maybe even on a Dodge Demon, her Mopar of choice. Just this fall, Haylie's growing enthusiasm for the car culture was recognized at a car show when she received the award for "Most Potential," an award that I had won just three years earlier with The Little Black Dress. The pride that I felt watching her collect her trophy just proved all over again that this hobby really is a family affair. I feel blessed to have a baby sister that I can share my passion with. 

That said- Haylie, I wish you and "Charley" The Cherokee a very happy first anniversary. May you travel many more miles together! I love you both!!