It's a Jeep Thing

So this weekend after working Saturday I got to borrow my friend's '98 Jeep Wrangler. He had to move some stuff and needed my Tundra so in trade he let me borrow the Jeep. I have looked at these for a long time thinking I wanted to own one. After driving Brent's I KNOW I want to own one! I drove it home from work with the top back and only the half doors on it, what a rush on the freeway, at a whopping 65mph it feels like you're doing 100mph. Don't misunderstand, I've driven a Miata for almost the past decade and know what top down driving feels like, this was different. Where the Miata feels like an extension of your body and seems to drive by telepathy the Jeep felt like you were riding a horse that you had to hold onto to stay in the saddle. When I got home Jill and I decided to go for a drive and stop somewhere for dinner. We took the doors off, I've dreamed of this day for a long time, driving "door-less". Man what a fun time we had driving around in our toy. Today, Sunday, we drove to Lowe's and did some other errands in the Jeep as well. I got a wave from another fellow Jeep driver, something the Miata crowd used to do more often. Shifting gears felt like driving an old fashioned truck compared to the direct click-click of shifting the Miata, but it was satisfying nonetheless. The ride is bumpy, tippy, and generally a hoot. I could see owning one of these, but after spending the weekend with it I don't think I'd drive one daily like Brent does. At 65mph it's practically deafening with the top open and windows off. The gearbox gets a little cantankerous in traffic and at one point I couldn't get it into reverse. There is no practicality to it at all. You can't leave anything valuable in it as locking it is more pointless than locking a Miata, there is NO lockable trunk. But for all it's shortcomings it does put a smile on my face when driving, I can finally say I know what people mean when they say, "It's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand".