The Notebook

I spent my evening clearing the garage (Dreamland? Docking Bay 94? I need a name for that place) of the remaining debris from the earlier construction project. It was getting a little late when I finished, but I spent a few extra minutes getting a copy of the Camaro’s cowl tag info and cuddling with her.

My dad kept a small notebooks in all of our cars. He would record every fill-up (date, mileage, gallons of fuel, and price paid) along with other maintenance information. This was a habit I learned to drive with and kept notebooks in all of my cars for years, but eventually got lazy, stopped, and forgot about the habit.

I’ve been trying for a while now to piece together enough information to determine when I actually got the car and how long I drove her before she was parked. The tag on the license plate tells me I last registered her in 1995, but I was hoping for something a little more accurate. Happily, I found the Camaro’s notebook in the center console. It was open to a page with an old address and phone number and I almost threw it out before I flipped to the beginning and found records for the car (along with a parts list for a new computer and some random assembly code).

According to the notebook, I picked her up on July 15, 1991 with 23734.4 on the odometer. I’m pretty sure it had rolled over twice before then. It records all fuel stops and maintenance up to May 6, 1995 with 51712 on the clock, when I last filled her up. The fuel stop info is fun to look at. On July 17, 1991, I put 15.1 gallons (probably of leaded regular) in and only paid $13.40 for it. I miss $0.88/gallon gasoline.