Florida Woman Parks Car After 576,000 Miles
A 93 year-old Florida woman is hanging up her keys to her 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente after more than a half a million miles on the road.
Rachel Veitch, explained that even though her age has caught up with her that she is in no hurry to get rid of the car, wanting to permanently park it after 576,000 miles on the road.
"I am legally blind, so I can no longer drive my lovely Chariot … They don't have to take it away, I would not dream of driving that car again," Veitch told FoxNews.com. Veitch suffers from macular degeneration in both her eyes.
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She recently had moment of clarity while she was driving. She ran a red light in March and after the incident, made the decision to voluntarily stop driving the car, whose wheel she has been behind since Lyndon B. Johnson was in the White House.
She has been positive about the whole situation, considering people in this day in age are happy if their car lasts ten years or 100,000 miles.
"I know I'm not safe enough to drive," she continued. "But I have taken it in stride … I don't have cancer; I don't have Lou Gehrig's disease. I am lucky."
She credits the longevity of the car to her commitment of regular maintenance and her obsessive dedication. Veitch bought the car in February 1964 for just $3,289.
"When I buy gas, I write down the mileage, the date and how many miles per gallon I got," she told FoxNews.com in 2009. "I've never been a destructive person and I've just taken care of everything, except my husbands."
Even so she traveled only a fraction of the distance that the current world record holder covered. The Truth About Cars blog explained that Irv Gordon's 1966 Volvo P1800 is estimated to surpass 3 million miles this sometime this year.
