Well, we did it. We took the plunge. Yesterday, we went out and bought a car. A Toyota Camry, very nice. Fanciest car we've ever owned. We have 60,000 miles left on the warranty! We also test drove a Prius. The Prius is very nice, and I love the idea of getting 50+ mpg, but it can't hold a candle to the Camry in terms of comfort and luxury. I guess we arrived at the age where a luxurious car can't be resisted.
We did it for a specific reason. I hurt my back, and I don't feel up to the 5000 mile round trip voyage up to Lake Champlain on Tarwathie. Therefore, we'll leave Tarwathie on the hard in Green Cove Springs, and drive north this summer.
But we also plan to keep this car indefinitely, so it represents a significant life-style change. Libby and I both have serioius trepidations. I could say that we now have one foot in the grave, but that sounds morbid and it overstates the reality. It is more accurate to say that, it feels that we now have one-foot in the CLOD domain (Cruisers Living On Dirt). But we love our cruising life so much, that being a CLOD and being half dead sound the same to us.
Benefits:
- We can take side trips and extend our range (same reason for having an outboard on the dinghy.)
- We can hopefully attract more family visitors in the winter if we can offer to pick them up at the airport.
Disadvantages:
- The last time we owned a car (2012-13), in only six months our physical conditioning went to hell. That is despite our efforts to use the car less and walk more. Once again, I plan to resist that trend, but success is not guaranteed.
- Our 4 months spent on our annual north/south migration were our favorite parts of the year.
- There is another temptation to use the car as a garage to aquire and store more stuff. Owning less stuff is one of the primary benefits of cruising. Now we have one very big "thing" to be responsible for (the car), and we must avoid having more.
- We'll have to learn a way to handle getting both the car and the boat from Green Cove to Marathon next fall. Other cruisers do that regularly, but we are novices on that part.
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Met a guy in the boat yard once. He sold his big sailboat. He bought two smaller older sailboats (Pearson 28s- he was solo). One he based in the Great Lakes near Buffalo, one he kept in the Gulf of Mexico. He drove to the other when the weather got too nasty where he was. Rinse and repeat. He had been doing that for ten years and loved life. Ken
ReplyDeleteGood choice on the car. I've been buying "lightly used" Toyotas all my life and then driving them till they're dead. There has continuously been at least one Toyota in our family since 1987. After the last non-toyota, my wife's edict was, "That's it, from now on we buy Toyotas."
ReplyDeleteOur current stable of lightly used includes a 2002 Sienna with 175,000+ miles and the "new" 2007 Avalon with just over 32,000 miles. The only bad thing is, they just keep using gas, oil and tires... year after year after year.
OK, as you wish, no condolences or congratulations...but we have to note that is a lovely picture of Libby.
ReplyDeleteJane and John, landlocked in St. charles, MO