Life with One Car

5 August 2012
4:41 PM

Sunrise at	5:06 AM	in direction	45°	Northeast
Sunset at	10:45 PM	in direction	315°	Northwest

Duration of day: 17 hours, 38 minutes (6 minutes, 57 seconds shorter than yesterday)

When we moved to Fairbanks, I made the decision to sell out of my Acura MDX lease contract.  I'd traded my used Mercedes Benz M310 (? I don't remember the series now, but we called him Lord Peter Wimsey) I'd bought the year before for the Acura, thinking that since I was replacing everything in the Mercedes part by part in repairs, the lease would cost me the same.  Then when we agreed to move here, I carefully checked for service and found that the new Honda franchise no longer serviced Acuras.  I would need to have service with a local shop or drive to Anchorage.

Then I thought about Gary's Odyssey (ah, Sweet Amma, the Mother Ship) and realized we might be better off to get a Honda Ridgeline.  That took some convincing because Gary thought he would still be doing his audio/visual installation business here (we were so naive), but ultimately, after looking at the truck bed, the truck, the practical passenger seat, we agreed it could be a good choice for living here.

But, not being affluent people, I didn't think we should pay for two cars until we got settled.  Then I thought about all the dirt and gravel roads that we live on (really, there are not many paved roads) and decided why waste a perfectly wonderful luxury car in very practical Fairbanks.  I have not regretted sparing my Acura the pain and humiliation of constant rock pits, broken wind shields and no way to make use of the hands free blue tooth option for my telephone.

So, we returned the Acura, sold Amma, bought the Ridgeline, now called Tracker, and headed north loaded to the gills pulling a trailer also loaded to the gills, following our huge UHAUL truck - ditto.  I will have lived in Fairbanks 6 years, August 14 and we still only have the Ridgeline.

I am not kidding.  If you only have one car up here, I think it is the perfect car.  It has good passenger space and comfort, reasonable gas mileage (for what it is), and a big enough truck bed we can haul just about everything we need to.  When we can't we borrow Vera's truck or Jamie's truck or have it delivered.  Those times are rare.

But, the hang up is I stay at home a lot when Gary needs to be back at Davis Concert Hall, and I don't need to be anywhere in particular.  And I take the bus when I need to be in early and he doesn't or he needs to be in early and I don't.  That works great most of the time, but in January as -40F, well you get the idea.  And if I need to go somewhere after work and he is working, either I sacrifice the trip to conserve on gas or have to travel back and forth between home and campus.  If he is working long hours, like today, or working late which is often, I skip the latter and just stay home.

After six years, I am wondering if we would be spendthrifts to invest in another car - maybe a used CRV or used Prius or used something small.  Sigh.