Friday, June 07, 2024

Remembering Juliette the Jeep

Shine the light(s)
Fort Lauderdale, FL
December 2011
This photo originally shared on Instagram


A few years ago, we rented a Jeep Liberty while on vacation.

The kids adored it, even nicknaming her Juliette before we had even left the airport rental lot.

Our big boxy beauty drank fuel like a fish - I swear the fuel gauge was directly linked to the accelerator - and if I’m being honest I don’t think Florida’s sun-drenched streets represented the ideal landscape for this unabashedly off-road machine.

But the more we drove it, the more I got why owners love their Jeeps. It just had a certain straightforward honesty about it, a simplicity of purpose that most vehicles today seem to lack. I smiled every time we climbed in, and by the time we headed home, I fully understood the “It’s a Jeep thing” mindset.

They don’t make the Liberty anymore, which makes me a little vaklempt for a sweet moment in my family’s shared history.

Strangely, it was the one driving experience that seemed less about the machine and more about the meaning. It helped me appreciate that we live in a world where it’s okay for a vehicle to be a little different than everything else on the road, and it’s perfectly acceptable if not everyone appreciates what makes said vehicle unique.

Come to think of it, this is just as true with people as it is with cars.

#deerfield #beach #florida #throwback #vacation #travel #jeep #liberty #red #itsajeepthing #jeepsofinstagram #car #carporn #automotive #oldparkedcars #opc #street #streetphotography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography

Related:
Ducking Jeep, May 2024
Only in a Jeep, August 2018
It's a Jeep thing, November 2014

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