Week With El Tio Winner

Sammy from Ipswich

It was spring. And that meant El Tio - the greatest "company vehicle" ever owned - was back to dominate the road to fast-food glory. (Winter is cold and our 28 year-old, Spanish, half-car, half-truck doesn't start when she's cold. She also doesn't move when her owners lose the key to "The Club" that they put on her steering wheel since her doors don't lock.)

And just like last year, we celebrated her courageous comeback against time and Mother Nature by holding a contest to put one of our family members shotgun in the old girl for a week.

Unfortunately, this year, we were stupid enough to never ask anyone who entered the contest where they lived.

So, in the spring of 2007, we learned that 40 miles north of Boston there's a town called Ipswich.

And we learned that town is a very far drive if you're in a car that doesn't have strong brakes, wheels, mirrors, or doors and if you inhale smoke for an hour straight.

We also learned that the beautiful, Spanish half-car half-truck we bought off craigslist for $1,600 will never, ever see that coastal land again.

But, in the end, the mighty El Tio defeated the odds, our stupidity, and rush-hour traffic to successfully deliver our winner, Sammy, to Ipswich High School on time for his first class and then back home for dinner.

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