The High School LAWG Sawga

It didn't take long for the LAWG to gain some more character from my awesome driving skills. One night during spring break my junior year, I thought it would be a great idea to run a disposable camera to Wal-mart. In my haste I managed to catch our brick mailbox and twist it off its foundation. At the same time I also worked in some awesome pinstripes. Other mishaps occurred around this time as well. On two occasions I forgot to open the garage door before backing out. After the second time the garage door required a major overhaul courtesy of Dad. Another time I failed to notice Dad's truck was parked behind me. Luckily neither suffered major damage.

Soon after I began driving I learned how to use the 4x4 button on the dash. This l

ed to many fun and exciting adventures at the lake, including Redneck LAWG Bonanza. As you can see, the LAWG was not yet the LAWG. The Unicorn was not catchy at all and really kind of gay.

Redneck LAWG Bonanza video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXEdpjkq6Q0

This photo was taken on a family camping trip to Big South Fork. At this point I was going mudding almost every weekend and the LAWG was always covered in mud. The side effect of being perpetually dirty was graffiti. What the drawings were I will leave to your imagination. There is still mud in certain areas of the interior from these trips.

One of the rituals before we started mudding was to change the air filter. I had one pre-clogged with mud for the trips so I would not ruin my newer one. I eventually fixed that but I will save that for a later post.

In the next post I will detail the LAWG's first major crash. It will be epic so watch out!

Abreviated Story of the LAWG

These first few posts will be for playing catch up on how the LAWG became what it is today. Since it was around before digital cameras early pictures will have to wait. The only one I could find was this from Red Neck Bonanza Day that happened junior or senior year of high school.

Now for the story of the LAWG. It all began in 1991 at Townsend Ford in Vandalia, OH. My dad decided to purchase a 1992 Ford Explorer XLT 4x4 and I decided that it should be green instead of red. It moved to New Jersey shortly after and build up a good supply of rust on the rocker panels before moving to Cookeville, TN in '97. By this time it was beginning to show its inability to comfortably take two growing boys on family vacations and, its days were numbered. In 2000, it was replaced by a Dodge Caravan and was parked until I started driving.

The beginning of the transformation occurred while I had my learners permit. I drove my mother and I to an OA Boy Scout meeting. During the meeting a storm front came through. Then a kid came in from outside and said "A tree just fell on this green Blazer out here!". We all ran outside to find that it was not a Blazer but an Explorer under the tree, my Explorer. My mom had been in the passenger seat paying bills or something but she was OK. The tree destroyed the windshield, messed up a headlight, dented the hood and fender, and kept me from getting my driver's licence until it got fixed.

Luckily the church where this happened had good insurance. With the payout, dad and I replaced the fender and hood, put on new brakes and shocks, and ghettoed the headlight. The rest of the money paid for my gas and insurance for the next year. I also have a feeling some went towards my drivers education instead of the CD player I wanted.

Seems like a good place to end. I am headed back home tomorrow so I should be able to find some old photos to post.