No Particular Place to Go

In March of 2008, it became necessary to say Goodbye to my beloved 2001 9 passenger Ford Excursion with the 7.3 Liter Powerstroke Turbo Diesel because diesel prices had hit $5.00 a gallon and with a 40 gallon tank (that's right folks, 40 GALLONS!) we just couldn't afford to fill it with fuel and drive it anywhere.

So after deciding I wanted one of them new-fangled "crossover" SUV type of vee-hickles, we chose the Saturn Vue. I had wanted silver or gold but after seeing the floor model all shiny and pretty and tricked out, we ended up with this color:



Black. Because it's so EASY to keep clean, doncha know. Especially when you aren't able to park in your garage because it's filled with ten thousand billion dirt bikes (ok, 4 or 5 but still) in various stages of repair and maintenance. But I digress.

And, because it was more affordable, we decided to lease instead of buy (Big mistake right there). And the 12,000 miles a year allowance is more than enough because I don't work outside the house (Some may say I don't work AT ALL but that's just a matter of perception) and I would just be doing local, errand-type of driving. Heck, we only chose the 12,000 mile plan over the 10,000 mile plan just to Be Safe. Just In Case.

So imagine my surprise when in the first 12 months of my 39 month lease I had put a whopping 15,000 miles on my car. What the hell??!!! How, I asked, did I put 15,000 miles on my car when I don't go anywhere? I take Thing 2 to and from school, which is only a 5 mile round trip. The grocery store is a 4 mile round trip. Something just wasn't adding up, except the mileage.

So, for one week, I decided to keep a driving log to see just where I and/or TheManTheMyth was driving. And then I could complain to Saturn that the odometer on my not-as-fuel-efficient-as-I-thought-it-would-be vehicle (this thing gets slightly better mileage as my diesel Excursion got, believe it or not) was messed up big time and they better fix it pronto!

Ok, school runs, including a stop at the park in the afternoon add up to 10.7 miles a week. No problem there. Taking Thing 2 to hockey every Tuesday adds 15.6 miles, 31.2 if there's practice. Hmmm. Club meetings every Monday adds 21.2 miles. Twice a month meetings in Brea add another large chunk of change to the mileage. A trip or 2 to Palm Springs. And this doesn't even count driving to the store, post office, bank, gas station, etc. If I keep up this rate, by the time I turn my car in (I'm so over my car now) I will have put 50,000 miles on a car with a 39,000 mile limit. And with each additional mile costing .28, that's $3080.00 I will owe.

Looks like I may have to start driving Thing 1's truck, The Famous Red Rocket:

(Lovingly "Giftwrapped" by friends) on my afterschool errands.

For someone who doesn't "Go Anywhere" I sure do a helluva lot of driving. Just like the Chuck Berry song, "Cruising and playing the radio, with no particular place to go."