In the spring of 1978, I followed a truck down the interstate.  It was no accident that I was on the heels of this transport -- in fact, you might say I had been stalking it across country.  Perched on the double-decker was a collection of small pickups and sedans, but dangling right at the end of the truck bed was a vehicle I'd been stalking across the country through obsessive phone calls.  A tiny silver car with the hood and windshield still covered over in plastic wrap.  It was literally the first Mazda RX-7 to make it east of the Mississippi, and when that truck stopped at a dealership, I was there to buy it before the car had even touched the ground.  I handed over the keys to my unreliable (but darn cute) Fiat X-1/9 and drove off in the first new car I had ever owned.  I was in love.

From that day till this, I've owned an assortment of vehicles as un-cool as a Ford Aerostar van (which spit out its transmission in the most inconvenient place imaginable) and as neat as my new Toyota Prius (the second new car I ever owned).  But while I've had a fondness for some of these vehicles, they were only passing affairs.  The little silver RX-7 still sits in storage unit back in Kentucky, waiting for those summer days when I bring it out into the sunshine and play at being a college student again.

But honey, I hate to break it to you:  you're going up on eBay.  I've found a new love.