I recently bought another Corolla, the third this year. When I started losing count of them, I knew it was time to document.
Here is our first Corolla, which we named “Bitsy”. Bitsy was a fairy-tale-story.
When I lived in St Louis, I never checked the paper for cars. All you can find are Oldsmobiles, similar garbage, or you can find an early 90s Accord or Camry with 250,000 miles for $5,000 or more. Nice. But one day, I happened to check the Toyotas. It doesn’t take long to check that section, there are never many of them for sale. I’m scanning through the usual 90s and newer cars, and then I see ONE car that stands out. The title read something along the lines of; “1981 Toyota Corolla, two owners, garaged rust free, 40k miles.” I happened to be the first of over 100 calls that day, and I was obviously the first one willing to make the hour and a half drive out of town to check the car out. But I’m getting ahead of myself, what the heck did a 1981 Corolla look like? I’d certainly never seen one, and I couldn’t picture it at all. Google searching only came up with a tiny thumbnail or two, I really couldn’t get a good idea but we knew the car would be a great investment and probably look pretty funky. I remember Atika and I driving out there in our *cringe* Ford Focus and the minute the car came into view. Jaws dropped…We both exclaimed, “WE WANT THAT” before we even came to a stop. The car was so shiny, so small and had so much character! The son of the second owner, Dave handed us the tiny original key and let us take it for a drive. Getting in the car was a trip, there was more interior room than I’d ever experienced, despite the small size of the exterior. The interior was as cherry as the outside, the lady had the car detailed and serviced way more often than is necessary, every part of the car looked new. We were in love, and gladly handed over a $500 deposit to secure the car. She was purchased spring of 2005 I believe, from her second owner. The car had done well under 50,000 original Illinois miles, and she was only $2000. That night, I started researching more in depth and found the life changing forum www.Toyota3TC.com, and I found out just how legendary this car was in the development of the brand and model. We came back within two days to pick the car up, and tried to make notes about the mechanical history of the car. The owner didn’t feel comfortable giving us the maintenance records, because they had her personal information on them. So I was determined to take good notes and be meticulous about the whole story on this car. But the service history was all tiny services and general pamperings. No cars have any real mechanical failures in the first 50k, let alone the bomb proof Corollas. The only funny/painful part of the story was when we stopped on the way home at a lousy little “Mexican Restaurant” for dinner, only to find that the starter didn’t have another start left in it. So we had to leave the car parked there, drop the key in a drop box at a mechanic across the street, and get picked up by my parents. Dave, the man who sold us the car, was happy to pay for the repair and was very gracious and comforting about the quality of our purchase….little did we know the journey that was just beginning. We would enjoy this car for three years and more than 50,000 miles.
We sold the Focus immediately after, and shopped for a second car a little while later. I bought a 95 Civic hatch with 19k miles on it, only to find that the car wasn’t measuring up to the Corolla’s value or performance. Eventually sold that car for what I had paid, and got a little moped for $400. We pampered bitsy for the first year, but regretfully we couldn’t keep her garaged when the salt and snow were on the roads. So she saw a little rust pop up, but was still a head turner. In fall of 2008, we were getting ready to leave St Louis and move to Portland. I started browsing Oregon Craigslist to see if there were more of these Corollas available. As we approached a fall visit, I happened to find a very intriguing car. “1972 Corolla Wagon Deluxe, $500″. I left a message and emailed, only to hear back that due to heavy interest the car was no longer being offered at even close to the asking price. The lady said she had a number of collectors from California that wanted to come and get the car. Oh well, can’t win em all. Thanks a lot Toyota3TC, I knew some people on there ruined it for me.
The visit came and went, and around the end of 2008 I happened to check back with the lady to confirm the sale of the car. Oh boy was she quick to answer the phone and eager to set up a showing at the original asking price! I got as much info as I could about the history of the car, how it ran and what it needed. Then I called Tony and asked if he’d go test drive the wagon and hopefully pick it up for me (if it passed the basic test). I think he was eager for the adventure, and took our friend Luke Tarr. He called me and said that the lady who was selling the car was an awesome character, and that she’d been using the car to go pick mushrooms in the mountains. So it was a little dirty, but looked really good outside and ran well. I knew this car could be flipped for more than $500 so I told him to grab it. Here are some pics that he took when he pulled into the Healy’s driveway. Apparently their jaws dropped in similar fashion to our first Corolla experience.
Tony drove “The White Wagon” to my inlaws house, where it was parked for a few months. I had Greg fire it up every couple weeks to keep the battery charged, and he thought the car was a great purchase…12:40AM, next chapter will continue soon.
ben
But good sandwiches anyway, by this time atika and I had each eaten probably two or three Luna Bars too, those things are good, they kept us alive for the trip. After the couple hours of layover we got on our Korean Air flight bound for Seoul, and they call the airport Incheon, which is kind of awesome, kind of like luncheon, but also kind of tough. As soon as the people called first class passengers, EVERYONE got up and ran to get in line. So they say, we are now boarding first class passengers, as well as those seated in rows 47-53, and there are 200-300 people in line, and I was mad at every one of them. I keep asking people, are all these people in rows 47-53? Most people say, I don’t know. I ask one of the ladies at the front of the line, attending, she says I should go to the back of the line. As soon as the line starts moving, Atika and I cut in, because it’s obvious that about 275 of the people there are now getting confused, lady attending the front of the line checks my ticket number as I walk by, and says “you cut the line, sir”, and I said, “oh yeah *smirk*”. Onto the plane and it’s amazing, 10 people per row divided by the two aisles, 8 inch touch screen LCDs behind EVERY headrest, I get right in there, pokin around, within 30 seconds I’ve got a game of golf going, but I can’t find the control, uh oh did I just end up costing myself some money? Nope, controller/phone/remote is locked into the armrest, before everyone else is seated, I already lost two golfballs into the marsh, in the exact same spot. OK forget the games, I don’t want to play minesweeper or any of the others, because there are so many movies and musics to choose from. Before takeoff I have “Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” playing, LOUD. From the menu, I thought I was just going to get the original Fast and the Furious, needless to say this sequel, or, threqual as it were, was a welcome bonus. I have a headache the whole day, so I’m cutting myself off for a nap after this movie. It’s a 10 hour flight, so no hurry. Meal #1, ugh. Atika had an awesome vegetarian meal, good planning. I was offered “beef” or “curry”, but they weren’t saying curry, but “korean lunch”, oh boy. 
It looked about like that, but not so good or colorful. A little bit of mystery meat in the center, some slices of mushroom (oh boy, I’m in the right place for a good mushroom) and some stupid looking veggies, sorry to sound so bitter, but it was a depressing site. Beside that bowl was a little cup of seaweed soup, which I think I was to pour over the cold meat and veggies, so I do. There’s also a little container of sticky rice, which I dump in there. There’s also a 3 ounce tube of korean hot pepper sauce, that’s the size of a travel toothpaste container, so I think there must be some good flavor in there. This meal went downhill fast, I can’t describe the mediciny, sterile, HOT aftertaste I was left with, it made water taste terrible. NAPTIME. I wake up and they’re giving out hot buns stuffed with beef, what, gimme one ma’am, pipin’ hot. Pretty much the best little steakumburger I’ve ever had, so I decide to get another so atika can try it when she wakes up, but lady doesn’t understand me, and then says they are all out, but she comes back with a banana and some poundcake, I say can I have one of each? Sweet, the banana bread got most of the spicy metalic taste out of my mouth, and I started watching “Taladega Nights: Legend of Ricky Bobby”, humm. Some funny lines, but I take another nappums and pause the movie. The next few hours is a blur, but I woke up and got a meal of “chicken and rice”, no big deal, not bad at all, oh and a great little cubeofcheesecake, I actually wanted seconds on the whole meal, because they never have enough food or water available to keep me from getting a migraine, sure enough I have a migraine right then and there. Ok I can’t remember any more of that flight, we’ll have to see if any of it comes back in the next day or two. I got out the camera when we landed, and filmed a little at Incheon, but it’s really not much to look at, people shopping SO much at 6pm, lots of duty free shops and all the big fashion brands have stores, we stopped by to take a look at the prices a nice assortment of Pumas, average price, about $150-250. OK, battery is almost done, so pausing there.
and 
, to spend the rest of the trip wondering what me or my friends could do on that, and if I’ll ever find that object mirrored somewhere else on earth. BMX gives you a funny perspective on the world, like check this beauty out 
, the texture of the walls and stairs, all the supports of the rail, all the supplies underneath, what a one of a kind picture I could paint with my bike and one of my cameras, oh and the love of my soul, Atika, to help me capture it. Appreciating china for three weeks without my bike is a fun challenge, and I can’t wait to see what the world looks like without worrying about my bike. I can go back again with the bike if I need to, but this is going to be a new world, and I rarely go somewhere new without being able to bring my bike. I’m still bringing my cameras, to hopefully capture some new shots that I’ve never seen in person, that will bring about a whole new satisfaction. Might try and go rock climbing though, now that I think about it 
