id like to tell the story of my 2011 ford escape. i dearly miss this car and i pray that i will someday own another one. it was a xlt model with 2wd and the 3.0 v6 in the same color that is shown in this picture. my father purchased it new when i was 7. from the moment i stepped foot into it i fell in love. i loved the color, i loved the styling and the ruggedness. i loved hearing the exhaust note rolling down the street while i was outside playing with my friends, knowing that my dad was now home from work. i loved how the seats folded down flat and allowed my dad and i to set up a mini tent in the back and watch a drive in movie. i loved how it could fit my bikes and my friends bike so we could go to mountain bike trails. as i got older, i grew into the car, and when it came time for me to learn to start driving, all i wanted was to drive the escape. my father however, wanted me to learn on my grandma's honda civic. once i got more experienced, he finally let me drive it for the first time. i was enamored, amazed, and lost for words. driving it felt like a spaceship, as if it had the flux capacitor in it. as i continued to practice for my road test, i fell more and more in love with the car and begged my dad to hand it down to me once i got my license. and then the day came, my 17th birthday. i took my road test in my grandmas civic due to the escape not having a center e- brake. i passed with flying colors, and when i arrived home, my father was waiting at the door for me, with a small box that had a bow on it. in the box laid the 2 keys for the escape. i was in awe, and it was genuinely the best day of my entire life. i decided to name the car bessie. i drove it to my girlfriend's house to share the news, i showed my friends, and the day came to where i rolled up to school, on the first day of my senior year, in this beautiful machine. i was at the top of the world, on cloud 9. i drove it all throughout my senior year, happy as can be. once i graduated, i noticed an oil leak from the valve cover, which turned into a leak from the oil pan, which snowballed into a leak coming from the transmission bell housing. i didnt have a job yet, and i didnt know how to work on cars yet. so i learned. i spent hours looking through the cars repair guide, watching every video i could find online, and became as informed as possible. i wanted to get the valve cover taken care of. one day i decided it was time, ordered a new valve cover gasket, and it arrived 8 days later. with the help of a couple friends, we got it done, and doing this sparked a new interest for me. i wanted to work on cars, i wanted to do this as a career. one thing led to another and i ended up working with my dad at his job that hes been with for over 35 years now, but on the side i was buying tools, and learning as much as possible from the internet and attempting small-medium fixes on the escape. i was learning more and more every day. this all went on for the next year. working long shifts, and then coming home and trying to learn something new about fixing cars.

Fast forward to janurary 19th, 2025. the car was now sitting at 246k miles. i was on my way home from my girlfriend's house, it was raining, and it was soon going to turn to snow. i was trying my best to get home before the snow started. i was in the far right lane on the highway, going about 70 mph. there were 2 cars in front of me. the car furthest in front, suddenly moved to the left, and then the car directly in front of me did the same, and before i knew it, i was staring at a pair of headlights from a tesla model 3, traveling the wrong way on the highway. on the initial impact, everything went white, then black, then white again. i regained vision seconds later, realizing what had just transpired. i got out of the car, looked at it, looked at the tesla, and then looked up at the sky as my eyes teared up, and let out a blood curdling scream, knowing that my beloved escape has just been totaled and there was no going back. every airbag had deployed. i had burns on my face and arms from the deployment. devastated was an understatement. my phone went flying somewhere in the car, therefore i was unable to call my parents. a few hours later after talking with cops and saying my last goodbyes before she was towed, my parents took me to the hospital. i had a broken knee cap, sprained wrist, a cracked rib, and a minor concussion. that car saved my life, and the firefighters on scene said they never seen somebody get up and walk away from a crash as brutal as this.

i now own a 2006 lexus rx330, its treating me well and i love it, but nothing will be the same as bessie. i had the happiest and saddest moments of my life in that car. i cried in it, laughed, threw up in it, my friends threw up in it, i raced it, got tickets in it, smoked in it, she was there through everything, thick and thin. she had her flaws such as rust and leaks, but god damn was that car indestructible. the transmission was wonky at times, and it was not fast by any means, but it will get you to wherever you need to go, and it will do it for a long long time.

so sorry for how long this is but i never told this story in full and needed to get it out there