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-
You pulled that with that!!? Wow, poor Mr.Soob.
ReplyDeleteYou have definitely arrived by the grace of God! That's the only way your little car could have made it that far.....happy settling in to "real life" now! We miss you. A LOT.
ReplyDeleteRockin trailer! Did you have to pay extra for the Anne of Green Gables picture?
ReplyDeleteHaha great story! How many time zones did you drive through?
ReplyDelete