From the dogs who eulogized Mom’s dearly departed DVR, you can’t possibly think we’d let Dad’s beloved car go without one final fond farewell. Tomorrow we’ll share the exciting news about our new car. But today we look back at 19 years with Dad’s Subaru Outback.
It all began back in 2004 when Dad bought that car in anticipation of Lemmy’s arrival. Alright, so Lemmy didn’t arrive for another three years. But Mom & Dad were prepared for when he did! On that January day in 2007, Lemmy’s first trip in the Subaru was spent cuddling on Mom’s lap on the backseat. A sweet introduction to our family, but a deceptive trip because Lemmy got car sick on subsequent car rides. Determined to get him use to it, whenever they could Mom and Dad would take him for drives, each time going a little bit farther, until one day they realized he no longer got sick and they could begin their grand adventures together!
I joined them on their grand adventures in 2012. My first car ride was a little less relaxing for Mom and Dad than Lemmy’s. Being safety conscious from the start I chewed on the seatbelts to test their durability, and taught Dad how to use the childproof window locks. Asa’s trip home in 2015 was typical of his personality – oblivious to everything, including the nor’easter they drove though! While Asa peacefully slept on his back, with floppy puppy paws in the air, Dad was white knuckling the steering wheel in the near white out conditions on that drive, while calming Mom by telling her that his car had driven through worse. And he was right! That car had been through worse storms on Dad’s daily commute back then, and through it all always made it to the destination safely.
Things didn’t always go well though. There was the time Dad left it in the driveway overnight and it got sprayed by a cat! I’ll never forget that revolting ammonia smell, and how Dad made it worse by turning on the air conditioner, thus circulating the smell throughout the car! We were the laughing stock of all the dogs at the beach that day when we arrived smelling like cat urine! That wasn’t the only time our car smelled awful. Over the years Asa and I got his car to smell just the way we liked it. However, during one repair in 2018, the mechanic most definitely disagreed. He assaulted our senses by drenching the inside of the car with air freshener! I don’t know who came up with that “new car smell” that humans enjoy, but oh my did that sickly bubble gum mixed with flowers scent cling to everything, including our fur, for weeks to come!
I do admit Dad’s car had acquired a unique smell over its 19 years. It was the smell of adventure! From the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire, to the beaches and trails of Massachusetts, and from Kittery in the southern most town of Maine all the way to Eastport, the most eastern town in the country, that car took us on countless grand adventures. I think one of the most appreciated drives though was our first car ride to nowhere after being confined to the house during the pandemic lockdown. Yep, we sure put a lot of miles on the car in 19 years. 194,723 miles to be exact! Alright, some of those miles Dad put on when he had to commute to work. But a lot of those miles were with us as his copilots!
In addition to miles, along the way it accumulated quite a bit of stuff in it, as we discovered when doing a little car archeology in 2022. Car archaeology is like regular archaeology in that we went through the layers of artifacts in the car making discoveries, but without the fun of digging in the dirt. Actually, now that I think of it, there was a lot of sand in the car, just not enough for digging. Each layer though provided us with memories of different times in our lives, the bottom layer being the most special because we found angel Lemmy’s favorite blanket and his collar. Mom had forgotten that she placed his collar in the car when we set off for our first adventure without him in 2014. She wanted Lemmy to be with us for all our grand adventures, and sure enough he was. Just like he will continue to do so in the new car, because that collar will have a special spot in that as well.
Yep, we sure packed a lot of memories into Dad’s 19 year old Subaru Outback. But now it is time to say goodbye and embark on new adventures in the next car!
