Jeep Flair

I've not had any chances to photograph the new Jeep in daylight, since yesterday had us meeting with our current landlord and prospective future tenants to show the house.

Two sets of folks came to see the house yesterday.

The first set was a middle-aged school teacher who teaches in the local school district on our side of the water. She showed up wearing a pair of sweat pants and an old T-shirt. She brought along her offspring, a teenage game geek and a little boy who was smitten with our animals. She told of the one dog, five cats, three guinea pigs, and whatever other critters they have, and how they're moving because she recently separated from her husband and he "keeps showing up." I don't think our landlord liked them very much, especially from a landlord's perspective. It's one thing to allow pets, and the house is more than full with our four (two dogs and two cats), but a whole zoo is a whole 'nother matter.

The second person to come see the house was a middle-aged contractor who'd be living her with his wife and their small dogs. He's from the area originally but has been living and working in the Washington, DC area for awhile. He's looking forward to getting back into a more rural area. I think our landlord liked him and would prefer him and his wife over the mom with dad issues and a zoo of animals. He was very nice, too, and complimented us on how nice we're keeping the home.

Once they left, we headed out to go see Angels & Demons, but it was already 7:30 and the last showing started at 7. We decided to put it off until another day, but definitely want to go see it, even if only to see whether it will live up to the book, which I enjoyed a whole lot.

Instead, we headed into Newport News to pick up a few accessories for the new jeep, such as license plate covers, replacement bolts for the license plates, the correct star bit needed to take off the rear seat belts (we don't be needing them, since we took the rear seat out), and other such little odds and ends. We also bought a new set of seat covers, since our old paw-print covers were really showing their age. The new ones are just plain black, but water repellent and sturdy.

There are a couple of changes that'll be made to the Jeep in the future. Among the first will be the installation of running lights on the bumper, adding wire covers to the lights, adding a winch to the front, and possibly getting a roof rack kit. Since the Jeep is smaller than the Escape, we'll need a way of transporting our extra gear - a roof rack or, possibly, an inexpensive trailer - are in our future. All of this is going to wait until after the move, of course!

We may get the decals that we've been talking about done prior to the move, though, since there is a guy who custom-makes them locally and at a very good price, which includes both a military discount and professional installation. We're looking to add a little Jeep flair by giving it some old-fashioned military Jeep markings. The hood number is from a 1950's Jeep and the bumper numbers are from the Berlin Brigade, one of the first units Trueman served in. PSSE-B stands for Physical Security Support Element - Berlin and FSB for Field Station Berlin. And, of course, the rear windows will have working dog stickers just like the Escape did.

I created a mock-up of what it would look like, using a photo of a similar Jeep that I found on the Internet. Our hard-shell top is actually a lighter color (more of a gray than a black), and this Jeep has different step-ups and a different front bumper, but you get the idea.