The Return of the Red Panther

One of the reasons, well the main reason we went to Delaware this weekend was to pick up my dad's old car.  It's the 91 Camry that has been through a thing or two, at one point it was rockin' a three tone paint job!  Ahhh yes I said THREE.  Sure you've heard of the two tone paint job, but this one was the three tone, pimpin'.  The front drivers side fender was a dark blue, the passenger side door was gray and the rest of the body was maroon.

Now the way it got the multi colors is a whole different entry, but I'll give you a little tid bit.  The front fender, was caused by getting rammed twice by an SUV.  The passenger door was caused by a not so smart man who stepped on the gas when the light turned green, even though there was a car directly in front of him.

I remember when my dad had to get rid of his old car, the white Mitsubishi Galant.  It was the first car that he bought here in the US and he loved that car.  When the non profit org towed it away, he was really sad.  I think the same went when we drove this 91 Camry to Delaware to give it to my sister.

There is definitely sentimental value in it, him and my mom drove in that car a lot.  When we were about to take the car back home today, he was checking it out and opening the door.  I was a little bit aways but I told my sister that he was getting flashbacks, and old memories were coming back.  He then sat in the drivers seat and started the car.  A few minutes went by as he just sat there soaking it all in, it's just like how when we get a new car and we sit there once we had bought it or decided that we're buying it, and take a deep breath to get that "new car smell."  Well he was sitting in there and taking that deep breath to get that old car smell.  My brother in law was telling him to becareful with this and that on the car, and my dad simply replied ... "I know this car."

I told him to go ahead of me since I wasn't sure how fast he'd be driving it, and if it would even make it back to NY!  He went about 20-30 minutes ahead of me ... and I was going to catch up with him.  I was doing about 90-100 on the turnpike, really I was.  Trying to catch up with him as fast as I could just incase there was any problems.  About 45 minutes goes by and nothing!  I thought maybe I had missed him, or he went into the single rest area that I didn't check, I did stop by the other rest area to check if he was there, but to no avail.  I finally caught up to him on exit 8 and pull along side him to let him know that I was there.  He was in the slow lane going about 60-65.  So I pull up in front of him going the same speed, when we reached a rest area.  He followed me in and we parked next to each other, he got out of his car and stood there leaning on the car, sort of posing.  There was a huge smile on his face!  It was a kool-aid smiel for sure!  He didn't say anything and just smiled and I smiled back ... then he said he was hungry and went to get some food. 

My dad is very happy to have his car back, the kids had dubbed it the Red Panther.  So it's returned, and I also have memories with this car, a lot of them.  The youth also have a lot of memories with this car!  This is the car that I hit 117mph with, this is the car where I fit 9 people, this is the car where I got my first speeding ticket after cutting off an undercover cop, this is the car that you had to open the back passenger door just to open the passenger door, this is the car that we took all over the place even though people said it would never make it, this is the car that made my dad smile ear to ear. 

The Red Panther is back. 

+ mon