DEFEND YOUR RIDE: Sharon At The Historic City Cemetery

Q: So your car doesn't have a nickname?

A: No, I'm not attached to my car. I've owned it for over 10 years, but that's just because I'm too lazy to go out and buy something else.

Q: Now's your time to make one up!

A: A nickname for my car…oh jeez.

Q: Some people can come up with strange nicknames.

A: That's true, but I think it's my generation. I'd say the people who came of age in the '60s, really, the whole car thing became really important, but I don't know. You could ask someone else and they might say the '30s.

Q: Did you buy your car new?

A: No, I bought it used. I think it was two years old when I bought it.

Q: Where did you get it from?

A: I think a place called Credit Union Sales. I was working for a state then.

Q: How many miles have you personally put on it?

A: About…it had 25,000 when I got it, so what would that be? Twenty-five from 105—80,000.

Q: Have you gone on any long road trips in it?

A: The longest I did was a trip to San Diego and back.

Q: Why did you go to San Diego?

A: For a wedding. I just didn't want to mess with flying down and all that. I hadn't driven to Southern California in a number of years, so I knew it would be the last time ever, ever that I would drive to Southern California.

Q: That is a long drive.

A: Yes.

Q: What's your favorite day trip from home?

A: Probably down to Morning Sun Nursery in Vacaville. I go down and buy a lot of plants there to put here. Then just for little getaways: Lake Tahoe, the Gold Country, up to the vineyards up there, Folsom to go up for lunch, Lincoln because I have friends up there, and that's about it.

Q: What are you doing in the cemetery today?

A: Today, I'm volunteering and doing work on the Hamilton Square Garden in the Historic City Cemetery and I manage this particular area, which is supported by the Sacramento Perennial Plant Club.

Q: How long have you been doing this for?

A: Seventeen years.

Q: What first got you into gardening?

A: Years and years ago, I lived in an old house in downtown Sacramento and it had a garden with plants I didn't know the names of. I just started researching and reading and trying out different things. Before I knew it, I was becoming a master gardener.

Q: What neighborhood do you live in? What's the zip code?

A: Tahoe Park, 95820. It's roughly four miles one way.

Q: That's not a bad commute.

A: No, but I have tools in the car. I wouldn't take the car as much as I do, but it just seems like there's always something that's going on out here. I mean, for a quiet bucolic place, you'd be amazed at the activity that goes on. I need my car to haul stuff.

Q: What's your car's main use? Just for commuting?

A: Yeah, because when I go down to see my brother in the Bay Area, I generally take the train.

Q: What are some of your favorite features about your car?

A: Reliable. Oh God, this car never gives me any hassle. The only thing that it's ever done that was probably weird, the air conditioning went out once and I've had a few minor electrical things. Otherwise, it is just incredible.

Q: What was your first car?

A: Oh God, it was a Chevy. Not a very exciting Chevy, a Chevy Nova. Do they even make those anymore?

Q: I don't think so.

A: The only car I've ever bought new—and I've not owned many cars in my life—was an Oldsmobile Forenza. I think Oldsmobile is gone, and certainly they did a horrible job with the Forenza. It was their first four-cylinder car. Oldsmobile cars were muscle cars in the sense that they were eight cylinders. They were big. They were meant to command the highway. This was the first four-cylinder and it was a disaster. I had more problems than I ever did, but I loved that car. As close as probably I ever felt about a car because I've always looked at them as just transportation, but that car came close to stealing my heart.

Q: What did you love about it?

A: It was cute! You know, it was kind of sleek and had a long front and a short back. It was white and it just was a cute car.

Q: How long did you have it?

A: Oh gosh, until they finally towed it away. Let's see, because I tend to have cars totally fall apart. Oh, maybe 10 years, eight years, thereabout.

Q: What happened to it?

A: The engine blew.

Q: Well, that's the end of that!

A: That took care of it. To get it repaired was just not worth it. The next car I bought--because it was the hot car of the time for people like myself--was a Ford Taurus. That car blew up too, and they were not supposed to do that. I had problems with the transmission from the get-go and Ford wouldn't believe me. But I had bought it used. God knows what had happened to it, but finally they had to recall. They finally said, "Oh, maybe it was something we did." But then the whole thing just kind of blew up.

Q: What's your absolute dream car?

A: Dream car…if I could afford anything? I'm too old for it, but a Land Rover. I love the sense of adventure that they portray. And of course, they seem to be indestructible, how they maneuver over rough ground. I mean, they're incredible.

Q: Do you have a sense of adventure yourself?

A: Yeah, I do. Not as much physically anymore, but in my head.

Q: What's the most adventurous thing you've ever done?

A: Probably it was climbing that damn mountain in Yosemite. I was dating a guy at the time who was a mountain climber and he talked me into a backpacking trip where we literally had to go—it was in the John Muir Wilderness—and we had to go over this ridge with a full pack and somehow, we are free climbing down the face of this particular ridge and back up because that was how we had to get out. When I think back now, it scares me to death to think about it.

Q: Did you enjoy it in the moment?

A: In retrospect. It makes for a good story. But I've never done anything like parachuting or…but I would love to, once before I go, those things that you go off a cliff in—what are those things called? Not parasail…wind…no, not wind sail. You're in this little cocoon and you literally, you run and then you sail off a cliff and if the updraft is with you, you fly. I would like to do that.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about your car?

A: Hmmm…only that I have—this poor car has taken a beating. You see all these surrounds here, the brick and the granite. I have bumped into those things more times than I care to admit. So I can't—you know, depth perception is hard in a car and when you're backing up. You can't always tell. So the next car is going to have those backup things that tell you when you're getting too close to something or tell you if there's something behind you.

Are you ready to Defend Your Ride? If so, email localautos@cbs.com with "Defend Your Ride Sacramento" in the subject line for submission details.

Photos and interview by Lisa Palmer