Ten years ago I took delivery of my Ford Escape
It’s been a pretty good car.
It has just under 220,000 miles on the clock… through 10 states… Yesterday I drove just under 600 miles… San Mateo to Eureka and back, on a quest to view old rusty railroad junk (I was successful… I saw rusty railroad junk… I returned safely… No hiccups… about 26 miles to the gallon…
It has some nicks from shopping carts flying rocks and parking lot bumps… I currently has a cracked windshield (its third courtesy of another flying rock or two) The seats are starting to fail…Its been rear-ended a couple of times...
It is a bit unusual… I special ordered it with a 5 speed manual transmission, which only came with a 2 liter engine (smaller that the currently popular, very green Escape Hybrid) and 4 wheel drive…I don’t drive off road overland un-necessarily… but I have made good use of the 4 wheel drive… So far, in trips to Yosemite to cross county ski, on trips over Hwy 88 headed for Carson City in a blizzard and other snow experiences I haven’t had to chain up… (I carry chains… chains for all 4 corners… but so far haven’t needed to use them)
It has been out into the salt flats of the Don Edwards preserve (with permission, escorted by Cargil Salt employees) It has traversed numerous dirt roads… It has been across the top of the Great Salt Lake on the original 1869 railroad right of way… 50 miles of dirt… It has forded the creek on the west side of Comb ridge when the water was running… We have explored Cedar Mesa together... I only got is stuck had once… on the east side of the Owens Valley in quick sand…
It has taken me to Yosemite National Park… 20 or so times… also to Death Valley, Zion, Bryce, Natural Bridges, Arches, Crater Lake, Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, Redwood National park (several times, including yesterday) Yellowstone and Grand Tetons as well as Navajo and Golden Spike National Monuments…and others, less memorable…
Today, it got a smog inspection (such is required when registering cars… and as this is its birthday, it’s registration is due…) Being 10 years old, we had to take it to a “test only station” short story, it passed... It was allowed 100ppm Hydrocarbons at idle… 170 at 2500 rpm… average for tested vehicles is 17 and 13 respectively… it tested 0 to both… CO2 was based on a % of exhaust… it measured 0 at idle, .01% at 2500 rpm…
A week ago I posted about choosing to light a wood fire on a no burn day on Christmas Eve… I chose to burn a fire… because the fire was more important than the emissions… but I believe in reducing emissions, trash, our collective foot print… and so celebrate the Escape’s close to perfect score on its smog test.
Today’s paper carried an article about how well Ford Motor Company was doing… how many cars it had sold… If my Escape is any indication their success is warranted.
In the next year or so, I will probably be looking for a new car… likely a new Escape… with a manual transmission and 4 wheel drive…
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