A Life Changing Weekend

"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
10/12/2020 at 14:37 • Filed to: gambler 500

I went into the weekend saying bye to the Ranger (finally) and taking the navigator position for the first time ever on a Gambler 500. Here’s my little blip of the weekend:

The rust on Sheryl’s reliable Camry is accelerating at an unacceptable pace. The trunk is disintegrating, as is the passenger door. The unibody is still pretty mint, however. Thus, the Camry will be her winter beater and Gambler car. I hope to buy her one of her dream cars for her birthday soon for her new daily.

Before the Gambler even started I got the phone call of a lifetime. In a couple weeks my career is going to make a major shift, a shift that greatly excites me! My new Kinja name hints at what it may be. You’re going to see a lot more of me soon. :)

Back to the Gambler!

That Camry is a fun little Gambler car!

It’s more capable than my former Mercedes-Benz 240D was and it floated through every mile in quiet comfort. Sheryl is an excellent learner and she’s already becoming pretty proficient at making a stock car play with the big boys in the dirt. Our only real damage this weekend was losing the entire front bumper crash structure trying to rescue an incredibly stuck 1 ton truck. At least the bumper cover wasn’t destroyed and we were able to cover up the damage. Her phone has more photos, which I’ll probably get around to dumping later.

Our convoy was massive, 22+ cars and basically a mile long.

We gave friends a spray can to graffiti up the car. She’s most likely going to evolve that concept a bit and paint the car in chalkboard paint. That way the car can have a new design every Gambler. Unlike me, she has no intentions on selling a Gambler car after only a couple events. She’s going to run it until the rust takes out something major. Likewise, she loves driving the rallies so much that we’re going bring both our cars to every run!

We decided to skip the final checkpoint on the route and instead penciled in our own, more scenic destination. We ended our run at Garden of the Gods in the Shawnee National Forest.

It wasn’t the best Gambler ever for me, but it was definitely one I’ll remember for a long time.

DISCUSSION (40)

Just Jeepin' > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 14:43

Garden of t he Gods (Shawnee edition) is awesome. I have a wonderful sunset photo from there that’s sadly lost ( and nearly destroyed my DSLR taking it).

VW Max > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 14:43

I’d love to visit somewhere like that last picture.

Also, a video of you driving the 2008 Smart up a waterfall made it on to my TikTok page!

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 14:47

Did you get hired on at Jalopnik?

ttyymmnn > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 14:55

That last photo is fantastic . Just for fun, I put a little bit of a crop on it and punched it up just a tad. Suitable for framing!

Kinja'd!!!

Mercedes Streeter > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
10/12/2020 at 14:56

Maaaaaaybe lol

HoustonRunner > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 14:57

That last photo is amazing. There are lots of things I love about Houston, but I do miss changes of elevation. I can drive all around Houston and go from sea level to all of 85 feet.

Also, looking forward to more content from you!

rctothefuture > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 15:01

If so, congrats! You make some amazing content and they will be glad to have you.

Just please, try and bring back some of that Jalop spark.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 15:13

Congrats!! Happy for you!

Would love to see the Jalop-OPPO relationship get back closer to what it was in the “old days” (I know it can’t be the way it was ) . A once per week? month? special on the FP by an aspiring writer from here on OPPO would be awesome... Jalop readers would love it, and would lead to more awesome content on OPPO to choose from. A symbiotic relationship.

WRXforScience > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 15:16

I knew a couple who used chalkboard paint on their beater autox car and it worked pretty well. If you have a drawing you want to preserve you can put a layer of hairspray over it or some clear coat if you’re fancy (they had a sweet Zelda drawing that was kinda the theme of the car that was permanent and everything else was just a fleeting design).

WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
10/12/2020 at 15:18

That would be cool, but remember, the more Oppo is talked about on the front page, the more the FP commentators come here........

Icarus should fly, but there are consequences for going too high.

CB > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 15:25

Congrats on the new gig! Hopefully you (and the other new crew) can bring some life back to the front page.

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI
10/12/2020 at 15:27

I don’t think there’s much risk of a public sponsorship of Oppo by Jalopnik. Something about press cars and whatnot...

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI
10/12/2020 at 15:37

I invite FP commentat ors to OPPO all the time.

WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker
10/12/2020 at 15:40

It used to happen all the time. Great articles from Oppo would be put on the FP.

What I’m concerned about, is that there is a generally agreed upon decency and respect rule (ie : don’t be an asshole) in the Oppo posting and comments, and no such agreement would stand of FP commenters were to suddenly arrive in Oppoland.

WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
10/12/2020 at 15:47

Oh, I think there’s always room to grow, but there are certain people who I fear wouldn’t follow the no asshole rule. The more people you add, the higher that risk.

Maybe I’m just paranoid.

feather-throttle-not-hair > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 15:52

If so, it’s goddamn well deserved!

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI
10/12/2020 at 15:53

Maybe...

That’s what rules and mods are for. Honestly, this place is such a positive force for so many here, I’d hate to keep it just keep it to ourselves.

What better way to reform an asshole help make someone excellent than letting him/her feel the OPPO love?

WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
10/12/2020 at 16:03

Fair.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 16:04

So awsome

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
10/12/2020 at 16:06

Even just like a “best of” curated type thing.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
10/12/2020 at 16:14

That would be cool - they’d just have to put a big fat disclaimer at the top:

The content linked to herein is from a platform for User Generated Content. G/O Media assumes no liability for content posted by Kinja users to this platform.

VincentMalamute-Kim > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 16:17

Congrats!

Jb boin > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 17:15

Fé licitations !

Kinja'd!!!

Fe2O3 is character > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 18:00

Looking forward to your content!

Verdog ~ manual Bro, Bro - HellHawk Equipped > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 18:15

Congrats, wish they would truly bring Steff back, we need more women that like cars, not just write articles.

boredalways > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 19:01

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you will rent a place somewhere in Streeterville, Chicago, and/or working for Deadspin or The Onion.

Dr.Jeckyl > Mercedes Streeter
10/12/2020 at 20:18

Congrats!

Mercedes Streeter > ttyymmnn
10/13/2020 at 18:27

SAVED!

Mercedes Streeter > rctothefuture
10/13/2020 at 18:28

I’m not sure just yet how public I can be about it just yet , but it seems Oppo pretty much figured it out. lol

I intend to bring both my wacky adventures, more of my serious stuff (like my article on the weird stuff you could rent from U-Haul back in the 80s), and everything in-between! :)

Mercedes Streeter > WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI
10/13/2020 at 18:32

In the very early days, said articles weren’t even taken specifically from Oppo! One of my articles from my personal page was published to the FP.

AKAIK, there wasn’t really any editing done to said articles so sometimes the work that was published was a bit...subpar. Jezebel used to do similar with the Groupthink community.

Mercedes Streeter > Verdog ~ manual Bro, Bro - HellHawk Equipped
10/13/2020 at 18:34

I’m curious about who the other three people are! Stef is still around doing freelance work for other outfits. IIRC, she voluntarily left Jalop to pursue her own thing. :)

ttyymmnn > Mercedes Streeter
10/13/2020 at 18:34

Mercedes Streeter > VW Max
10/13/2020 at 18:35

Ooooooh I have to find that TikTok video !!!

Mercedes Streeter > boredalways
10/13/2020 at 18:39

Very close guess! I’m not good with sports or repeatedly good with satire, so I’m not going to be working for either of those sites. Maybe a sister site, though. ;)

I’d love to move to Chicago, but the city is an unwelcoming place to people with car collections. The rent is pretty abysmal as well. lol

boredalways > Mercedes Streeter
10/13/2020 at 20:05

Please don’t be Jezebel!

I'm still mad at the way they treated many voices of color/LBGTQ+ commenters after the 2016 election by purging many of them back to the greys.

boredalways > Mercedes Streeter
10/13/2020 at 20:08

Also, I figured you weren't living in Streator, IL. Just a little too far from the metro area -- even though Joilet is basically part of the metro area now

Verdog ~ manual Bro, Bro - HellHawk Equipped > Mercedes Streeter
10/13/2020 at 20:08

I think it was “QUOTE” leaving on her own... take the buyout. Always remember , Union Dues are optional!

Remember Us! The poors in Oppo. Seems those that built us forget.. Doug, Stef (to an extent), Tom and many more.

zipfuel > Mercedes Streeter
10/14/2020 at 22:54

Kinja'd!!!

Remember all us poor forum folk when you’re famous!

StarsForCars > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
10/31/2020 at 14:32

+1 because this is how I found Oppo.

Thanks d ave s addiction.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > StarsForCars
10/31/2020 at 14:37

Sure thing!

Get your authorship here: https://oppositelock.kinja.com/i-a-glutton-for-punishment-want-you-to-be-on-opposit-1844164784