Bill and Juanita, owners of Allenspark Lodge B&B, are living their dream...

running a successful business and riding as often as possible.



Friday, February 17, 2012

AWD

Juanita and I have been driving Chrysler product mini-vans for better than 20 years.  I am secure enough in my masculinity to not think anyone will mistake me for a soccer mom, and I like to be able to carry sheets of drywall/plywood/insulation/etc out of the weather without tarping.



Problem was, someone at Chrysler decided it was more important to have hiding seats than room for an axle underneath.  No more all wheel drive.

We live at 8500 feet, and we get snow up here.  It often falls on the roads.  The road crews are GREAT at clearing the highways, but sometimes we can't wait.  We NEED all wheel drive.

We tried waiting the folks out at Chrysler, hoping they would come to their senses, but no such luck so far.  Our '97 mini-van had 272,000 miles on it and I was getting worried.  That's over a quarter million miles.  The moon is less than 240,000 miles, and even NASA junked the rovers at that point.

So, earlier this week, we traded in or '97 for a '03 with 170,000 miles on it, to buy us some time.



And now, we wait again.

Bill

(When we pulled in with the replacement van, the horses were stone quiet even though it was well past dinner time.  They will recognize it soon enough, I'll betcha.)

3 comments:

  1. You know they will. Heck they recognized Ripley and I was parked on the Highway, no where near my usual parking place.

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  2. Very nice! Only...shouldn't you have a brighter color up there? I'm afraid the snow plows will mistake it for a snow drift.

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  3. Ooh niiiice! I loved our 4WD as we drove up that slippery hill to Mr. Daddy's surgery and passed the poor teenager in the Nissan pickup... (sliding backwards).

    And just so we're clear... AWD don't make a lick of difference if you have a flat with a car full of people on the way back from Estes Park and you have the deaf chick walk back to the lodge with visions of karate chopping a bear ;)

    ReplyDelete

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