Rogers Park Carless

Well, I can't call myself Chicago Carless, because that moniker is already taken. But I can be Rogers Park carless!

Back in August, when we lost our paid parking space, we decided to drive the car up to my father's place in Minnesota. As I mentioned then, it was a trial run, of sorts.

The trial was mostly a success. One caveat: Parking the car at my father's home was a pain in the ass. That just wasn't working out, for various reasons. So, in early November, I took the train up to Minneapolis and drove my car back down to Chicago.

Parking the car on the street here in Rogers Park throughout November was a real pain. We had to park a good 8-10 blocks away, and of course, you're supposed to move it every three days. That sucked.

I have no desire to keep a car in the city at this stage in my life, so I hatched a plan to sell the car to a friend of mine in Texas. We drove down to Texas over two days, Thanksgiving day and the day after. Boring drive, but easy, and kind of fun.

Spent the weekend in Dallas, met up with various friends, ate a lot of good food. Flew back to Chicago on that Sunday.

I still owed a couple of dollars on my car loan, so I paid that off with the money my friend paid me for the car, and the clear title arrived today. I took it out of one envelope and dropped it right back into another envelope and mailed it to my friend in Texas.

As soon as that was done, I called my car insurance company (Progressive Direct) and canceled. Since I actually like them, I wasn't jerky to them on the phone and politely answered their questions. Assuming we ever buy another car, they'd definitely be my first choice for car insurance. It's always been painless dealing with them.

So now, I'm free of a car payment and free of an insurance payment. I'm free of a car, and it feels good to be carless.