Cross-Continental-Car

Obligatory first car pictures

Most people that I know or that know me understand that I enjoy vehicles, I enjoy driving vehicles and I like working on vehicles, even if it has to be my own. Growing up on a dairy farm has taught me quite a bit about working on machinery. My parents also taught me a lot about purchasing anything. Unfortunately for me though I completely forgot all of their advice when I purchased my first car. The car that I own right now is my first and only car, and surprisingly, he is serving me well.

 Despite my father’s many years of wisdom in purchasing vehicles, I purchased a rusty “Mr. Soobs” with 180 000 Km’s and now he is still going strong at 251 000 Km’s (albeit with many different repairs). He has taken me to the Midwest and back 3 times now including one time to Dordt with a trailer and most recently he has taken Karisa and I, and a 4x5x8 trailer, across an entire continent from Prince Edward Island to California in a week.

A little map of the journey

Driving to California on its own is a feat in and of itself, with the added difficulty of pulling a large trailer thrown into the mix, it then became a life goal. When I was younger I had wanted to drive to California, my vehicle of choice at the time was an old VW hippie bus, but now it’s any vehicle with AC.

Sometimes I find driving wears me out, whether it’s from the constant search for police in the crossovers, or the search for a comfortable place to move my right leg while still being in contact with the gas pedal. This time however, I was very comfortable driving from Sioux Center, Iowa to Yucca Valley, California with a trailer. I didn’t have to worry about passing anyone (my average speed was probably about 50 Miles an hour) and when I did it was usually a farmer on crop tour (I passed 9 cars total from Sioux Center to Yucca Valley with the trailer in tow). I usually stuck to the right lane so everyone could get around fine but sometimes a jam would occur behind me, I would just keep on going and it would sort itself out. 

Mr. Soobs with trailer in Colorado Springs, Colorado and yes that is Anne of Green Gables but more on that later.

Mr. Soobs has treated me well over this past week, and I am impressed with his ability to simply keep chugging along, whether it’s up a 6% grade with an overweight trailer, or through the Mojave Desert in 109 degree Fahrenheit 42 degrees Celsius. There were times though that Karisa and I both had to simply forget everything we were doing and pray Mr. Soobs up another hill, through insatiable heat, or just simply to the place we were going to stay at that night. He has served me well and I hope he can continue to serve us even if it means getting a few more things fixed. 

Emil out-