The Wave

I recently purchased a Jeep Wrangler. I did this for a few reasons:

1- It's a fun summer car
2- I've kind of always wanted one
3- My previous car was a piece of crap

I didn't buy a new one because I didn't feel like delving into a monthly car payment. So I picked up a used one to tool around in for a few months. I thought of a lot of different things when I first decided to buy one; how bad it is on gas, how much of a pain it is to take the tops on and off, how totally sweet it looks to drive with the top off, etc. But I did not think about being inducted into a club of sorts.

I'm talking about the Jeep Wave. To be honest, I had never seen "the wave" between Wrangler drivers until about two weeks before I bought my own. I always thought that vehicle-based acknolwedgements were reserved for fat bearded dudes riding Harleys.

But evidently I was wrong. My second day driving it, a kid who couldn't have been older than 19 approached me from the opposite direction driving a Wrangler remarkably similar to my own and lifted his fingers off the steering wheel. Instinctively, I made the same gesture. The guy blew by me and I realized that I had been unwillingly initiated into the world of jeep drivers. I wasn't quite sure how to feel because whenever I see guys on motorcycles do their wave, I think, "That's kinda stupid. He probably doesn't even know that guy." But when you're actually participating in something like that, it's pretty cool. It's a type of comeraderie that doesn't exist among people who drive other vehicles. I mean, you never see two guys driving Hyundai Elantras give each other a respectful wave as they pass by each other.

I didn't realize how big a deal this whole "wave" thing was. But there are entire websites dedicated to it (see: http://www.jeeptalk.org/jeep_wave.shtml) They even give guidelines for how much creedence to give other jeeps based on age, appearance, upgrades, etc. It's freakin nuts. Who would actually put that much thought into something like this? Personally, I don't care enough to read through all the "rules of the Jeep Wave", so I'll just wave at all jeeps I see.

I'm not too discriminatory.