Subaru Lovers
I’m going to be upfront, this is going to be a stupid car post.
Life over the past month has been hectic. Since I came back from Bend, I haven’t had a single opportunity to take Hailie out in the tent. We only have Wednesdays off as our shared day off, so Tuesdays are the only night we can do overnights, but being an adult has gotten in the way every Wednesday morning. I had my second vaccine one day, we had to get the STI registered at the DMV, I had an appointment to get a 2” hitch installed at U-Haul one week, and then Hailie had her first vaccine at some point in the mix. All scheduled on Wednesdays because that is the only day in the week we can get adult things accomplished, and thus the series of successful preventative measures to me finding access to my Tuesday overnight trips.
But let’s rewind a few steps, what was that you said about registering an STI? Where did that come from?
This is a story and a half. We had taken the forester in to get serviced, and we decided to test drive a new WRX. Sam, the Subaru dealer, asked Hailie if she was considering a new WRX. She told him that she had always dreamed of getting an STI since she was 18, and she also knew that her next car was going to be a specific build, just like the forester had been for me, so she wasn’t going to settle for anything less than what she wanted. Sam told her that she might be looking for a unicorn because a current global microchip shortage had new productions at a standstill, so the used inventory was incredibly limited in the automotive industry. To add to the market challenges, there were the cultural challenges of finding the most sought after car in the Subaru community. Adding another degree of difficulty, even if you can find the used STI, you have to hope that the owner is the better half of STI owners. You see, half of the owners are people who respect the car for what it is, and the other half are kids who don’t know how to treat a performance car and beat them into the ground. It’s a complete crapshoot when you come across them, but an inspection tells all tales. All of what he had told us was an echo of what we had expected, but none of that really mattered because we were only on a test drive to have fun while we killed time during the forester’s routine inspection.
When we get back to the dealership, we pulled up to a car in the customer parking section that had not been there when we left. It was an STI… We got out of the WRX and walked around what was in the middle of being traded in, and saw that the car had been babied. I told Sam to find out what he could and to give us a call because I wanted dibs on finding out numbers. What Sam didn’t know is that Hailie and I had already talked about it, and if she could get into a new car she just needed to find the exact thing she wanted because we were keeping our adult cars for a LONG time.
Sam called back. “So…I can’t believe what kind of unicorn this is. 2017 STI Limited with less than 10k miles a year on it. This was a weekend driver and most everything looks in good condition, but we have to do a full inspection as part of our intake before we can sell it. If we come across anything, we’ll back it since you’d technically be buying it before we have a chance to make sure it’s okay to sell, but I can tell you this thing looks solid.”
And that’s the story of how Hailie stumbled into her dream car.
Meanwhile, I had gotten so completely frustrated with not being able to go camping with my wife that I decided to take an afternoon with my mom to some of the camp spots I plan on spending over the next few weeks after the final adulting appointment (Hailie’s second vaccine shot) this Wednesday.
An afternoon in the woods was a great way to scratch the itch, and I LOVE that I didn’t feel like I was wasting time setting up the tent for an afternoon. It literally takes a minute to set up, and EVEN WITH THE AWNING OUT, it only takes 5 minutes to break everything down. This purchase makes the outdoors both incredibly accessible and entirely rewarding to be in.
Meanwhile, back on the other side of the Subaru spectrum, Hailie had finally gotten comfortable in her new car, but after realizing the tread on the tires had seen 50k of wear on them without having been replaced with quality tires, she didn't feel comfortable going on long trips, so she limited herself mostly to in town driving until she could buy a new pair of shoes. Why does it always seem like the solution needs to include a new pair of shoes? Regardless, we made an afternoon trip of going to Sun Valley to the Sawtooth Botanical Gardens to break in the new tread. The 3 hour drive from the Treasure Valley was a great mix of rain and shine, but I was not NEARLY prepared for the increased elevation because it was a solid 15-25 degrees colder than it had been back home.
The botanical gardens are always beautiful, but most of their exterior landscaping was still in a winter sleep this early in the year. Fortunately, the greenhouse was in full bloom and the garden of infinite compassion wasn’t under renovation like the adjacent part of the property had been. We spent a half an hour wandering around, I grabbed a sticker at the visit center and dropped $15 into the bucket (it ran largely off the honor system) for our admission and my souvenir, and then we hit the road back home.
One of the reasons to visit the SBG, is the Garden of Infinite Compassion. It was built in 2005 to honor the visit to the gardens from HHDL. This garden is home to one of two Tibetan prayer wheels that can be found in the United States that has been blessed by HHDL.
We were the only ones there the entire visit, likely because of how chilly it was, but it was completely peaceful and serene, and a great time to take in the views of the area.
The sun was finally setting, so we made our last stop on the side of the road before calling our day trip a success. The next update will hopefully have me spending enough time camping that I can make a video or two to share. All I know is that the weather is beautiful, the cars are all set to go, and Idaho is waiting.
Side note, I’m going to #WifeBrag for a second. I don't need to say anything, just look at her all excited in front of her dream car. She just screams sexy.
Hailie and I are now a Subaru family, and our cars are the perfect representatives of our personalities. Sure we want completely different things out of the ride, but we both want the ride to be a lot of fun. Subaru gives us the perfect way to define our fun. Now I just need to get my mom in an Outback so she can go camping with us…
Until next time.
-Chris
