Downsizing is highly overrated

We've been a one-car family since the fall of 2016.  It was part of the downsizing.  And while driving a ginormous dualie in the tiny streets of San Antonio was a pain in the ass, we made it work.

Parking this monster is always a challenge.

But then it snowed.  Have you ever driven a dualie in snow?  I don't recommend it. 

Ergo, I was too afraid to drive on the muddy/snowy/unmaintained forest service roads to do the hikes I really wanted to do.  I was constantly worried about getting to a trailhead, only to be not able to turn the dualie around to get back out.  It was seriously cramping my style.

And then I got stuck in snowbank in front of the post office.  I couldn't get the chains on, because .... dualie in a snowbank.  A nice CODOT guy driving a bucketloader took pity on me and plowed me out, but that was the snowflake that broke the camel's back.

So I employed the "I could be dead tomorrow" theory and bought me a car.  A bright orange car. 

I love my Subaru, even if it is orange!

This is my fourth Subaru - all the others were blue Outbacks - and it is just perfect.  If given the choice, I wouldn't have picked the color, but its growing on me.  This thing goes ANYWHERE.  I've driven it over and through snowbanks and up and down ice-covered mountain roads without a second thought.  It gets me where I want to go, every time, without fail.  And it averages 30-35 m.p.g. (vs. the 10-15 on the dualie) and can park in the tiniest of spaces. 

I have no idea what we'll do with it once we start traveling again, but I'll obsess over that when the snow melts.  😀