Our Ride

Paul and I are now a one vehicle family. That vehicle is: “The Buick”.

While most of the population of Anchorage drives sporty (though dirty) SUV’s and every model of Subaru--we drive The Buick.

The Buick, according to the gear rack maker Yakima is “unyakible”. The Buick though has made up for its lack of sport friendliness by having an extra large back seat where we stow our skis. While other people take their skis off of the roof—we take them out of the back seat.

Of course, The Buick is not in as good of condition as when I drove up the AlCan Hwy in 2003. The shiny dual exhaust system was ripped off as we took a trip over a summertime access only mountain pass. Now it has a much more conservative single exhaust.

Last year the back of the car didn’t quite make it across the intersection before somebody took off and smacked the rear passenger side door in. The Buick then proceeded to repay the purchase price (and all of the maintenance and insurance ever paid) in an insurance settlement that totaled the car. A benefit of not many Buicks in Alaska is that the car costs too much to fix. Part of the proceeds paid for a door that Paul along with our friend and neighbor installed along with a few additional washers. It doesn’t work perfectly but it functions. I didn’t like driving around with a door of a different color and had it painted to match the specialty psychedelic green of the rest of the car.

While other vehicles sport studded tires, The Buick just drives slowly on its all season treads up the hills.

We do spend a lot of time thinking about “the perfect” car and what that would be. But for now, we put our skis in the back seat and Paul brings home pallets and firewood in the trunk.

You have to appreciate a fine car like The Buick.