1993

Over the ages, people have followed toy trends, always wanting certain ones, or brands, or the hottest thing that was out that season. I remember in 2001, the biggest thing was scooters. Call of Duty 4 was the biggest thing when I was at Walters State. I don’t remember a lot of the other store rushes, though.

One was a big thing back when I was about 9 was collecting Hess trucks. My family had never gotten any period, but a cousin or two would get one every year. Each were released every year as sort of a collector’s edition, having a different frame and even a date stamp. May of them were play-quality, having features such as lights and rubber tires.

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It’s been ages since I’ve done a fleet cockpit photo, so I decided to give the good girl Novastar one for the books, considering she’s my daily driver at the moment. She always had this luxury feel; it never felt functional or barebones like Orion. Even Vesuvius, my Jeep Grand Cherokee limited felt more utilitarian than this.

 

And yes, while I was technically assigned Vesuvius, the vehicle is not suitable for daily 100-mile drives any longer. With no A/C in the heat of August and still stuck in 3rd gear (making it terrible for Interstate driving), I was assigned to use the heavy cruiser for the time being.

 

But you couldn’t complain with this Mazda 929 for comforts. While I did despise the cassette player and the analog clock, the rest I definitely enjoyed; cruise control at 30mph, volume controls on the steering wheel, heated leather seats and fog lights. And how could I forget about the auto-climate control system? That was an extremely ingenious system. I also loved how the instruments seemed to wrap around me, not just straight-on like the Jeep.

 

Well, at least it gave me better gas mileage than Vesuvius.

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This was certainly an odd occurrence, and I was glad I was around to catch it. But just as I got home with the USS Novastar, I realized that the odometer was at 111,111. Very interesting. Despite having a crappy cell phone camera I snapped a picture for posterity. From then on I’d snap pictures if I could when they’d hit an interesting combination or a milestone.

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