Well, to us in any case. Teresa and I decided we definitely need a second car. For one thing, the gas mileage on the Tundra is pretty brutal. “Big Red” only gets 18 miles-per-gallon on the highway, and that’s downhill with a tailwind. With the 20 miles commute from our temporary home in Coaldale to our office in Salida, things add up quickly. Teresa and I are often finding ourselves needing to go separate ways too. So we started our hunt for a second car.
We decided we needed something all-wheel drive (or four-wheel drive) that gets good gas mileage and is somewhat reliable. Unfortunately, this doesn’t exist. Ideally, we’d find a diesel (for playing with biodiesel) or a hybrid. That REALLY doesn’t exist… especially in all-wheel drive. Yes, yes, I know there are some hybrid SUV’s, but we’ve already got a truck. The closest we really could get was a small Subaru. My early research showed that one of the best choices would be a Subaru Outback Sport, and that’s what we found. We ended up purchasing a little blue 2005 Subaru Outback Sport, “Baby Blue.” It’s not the fastest thing in the world, but it gets about 30mpg on the highway and has a tight suspension. Teresa and I both used to drive cars with manual transmissions, and we forgot how much fun it was to drive a stick-shift, sporty car. So far, we love the little car.
We found it listed on craigslist.org and had to drive over to Breckenridge to pick it up. The drive was pretty rough, with plenty of snow on the ground on the high mountain passes, but the roads were passable. On our way, we passed through South Park. Yes, this is the “area” that the cartoon was modeled after… really, a “park” out here is nothing more than an alpine plain. Check out this layer of fog hanging over the high plains:
This is a shot from Trout Creek Pass between Buena Vista and Fairplay.
PS Sorry we’re a bit behind on our blog. See our photo galleries for the most up-to-date happenings:
More to come momentarily…