Road Trip to California –

As mentioned in my previous post, I just got back from a quick road trip to California. I left for California one week ago today. I drove several hours on Friday and spent the night in Winnemucca, Nevada. Copper and I got the last room at the Super 8 Hotel… and it was a smoking room. I couldn’t be picky considering it was the last room available at a hotel (not a motel- those are so usually so sketch) in the small town. The room wasn’t too smokey, and didn’t stink too bad, although Copper kept sneezing. I made sure to leave most of my belongings in the car… as I strongly dislike the smell of cigarette smoke. The next morning I drove the rest of the way to Manteca, California (where I’m from) with a stop at In-N-Out Burger for lunch 🙂 It was as delicious as always!

In California, I was on the go non-stop. Sunday was spent in Sonora with my 85 year old great grandpa. We spent the entire day at Black Oak Casino. I had promised him I’d go to the casino with him… I am not really into gambling, but I had an okay time.

On Monday I was eager to drive up to Sacramento to visit Elk Grove Subaru. Once there, I found the car I would later purchase. 2012 Subaru Legacy. 6 hours or so after I arrived (seriously, it took that long), I drove off the lot as a brand new car owner 🙂

On Tuesday I spent some time with my grandma and then helped my mom out in her classroom. She’s been a second grade teacher for years but this year she’s teaching first grade for the first time ever so I thought I’d devote a couple hours to helping in her classroom. That night, for the first time in as long as I can remember, I went to dinner with my mom, my dad and my older brother. We went to Applebee’s, where my little brother works & was working at the time (I loved seeing him as a host! My little Ty Ty is all grown up!), and it was so much fun to be there with my family – dad, mom, brothers. We had a great dinner – and all ordered a version of the exact same thing 😉 Later, I spent some time talking with my brothers before heading to bed. I had to drive back to Colorado in the morning so I needed some sleep. Being in California, and staying at my older brothers house, was so much fun.

On Wednesday, Copper and I were out the door by 7:15am. After stopping to say bye to Mom and pick up a few things from her house, we set off. We ended up sleeping in Salt Lake City, Utah that night after I found an awesome hotel deal on hotels.com. The next morning we were, again, out the door by 7:15am. I decided to take the slower (but scenic) route to Colorado via i-70. It was a good decision — the drive was beautiful!!!

My little brother is now driving my 04 Toyota Corolla S. It has been the best car… with nearly 200,000 miles on it (When I got it it only had 13 miles on the odometer. 13!), 4 (or 5?) trips across the country, 2 trips to California from Colorado, and brutal winters in Massachusetts and Colorado – it hasn’t needed a single thing except a new water pump and routine oil changes. Now I can confidently pass the car on to my little brother. It still gets 38 miles per gallon (city/highway combined) and the latest mechanic said the engine and transmission look great. I couldn’t be more pleased with the overall performance of the car. It has been so incredibly reliable.

Being that I had such success with the Toyota, I wanted to stick with a foreign made-in-Asia vehicle. I began researching Subaru’s months ago and knew that when it came time to purchase an all-wheel drive vehicle I not only wanted a foreign made-in-Asia car, but I wanted just that – a car! I wanted good gas mileage (clearly I’ve been spoiled with my Corolla S getting such great mileage throughout it’s life) but wanted (and needed) the all wheel drive also. I’m super environmentally friendly (or try to be!) & wanted to remain so when purchasing a vehicle. While researching I quickly learned that my options were limited. All-wheel drive, environmentally friendly, good gas mileage and affordable? Subaru had options 🙂

The new car 🙂 It averaged 33.6 mpg during the entire trip back to Colorado, up & down mountains and all! If you’re considering an all wheel drive vehicle and don’t want to break the bank with an expensive new car that is a gas guzzler, I’d check it out!