The closing sentence of the  My Wheels chapter for my previous practical car spoke of trading the recently battered 2011 Forester. The Subaru had been quite good to me and I’d had every intention of continuing to drive it for several more years. Instead, that battering caused me to move to an updated and differently colored version. Reminiscent of the move that replaced the red 1998 Corvette with a blue 2006 model, the red 2011 Forester was replaced with a blue 2018. However, not only is a 4-door SUV quite unlike a 2-door sports car, the two blues are worlds apart. The Corvette’s Daytona Blue was kind of exciting. The Forester’s Quartz Blue Pearl is kind of boring.

My first documented trip in the 2011 Subaru included a stop in Columbus, Ohio, where I had the clever (to me) idea of photographing the car under a Denny’s sign. So naturally (to me) I thought I should do the same thing with the 2018 car. That turned out to be much easier said than done. It seems the Denny’s restaurant chain has fallen on hard times and reduced their presence considerably. There are none left near Cincinnati and only one in Columbus and it lacks the big elevated sign I sought. The picture above was taken at a restaurant near Terre Haute, Indiana. Unlike the similar shot of the red Forester, it was not taken on the car’s first trip but on its second most recent, number eleven.

The red Subaru made its first documented trip just about a week after acquisition. The blue one was in my position for over four months before it was so honored and it would be another four months before it actually appeared in a trip journal. It was the middle of July 2017 when I stopped at the dealer with the scrunched and scratched red Forester thinking it might be close enough to the end of the model year to find a bargain. To my surprise, there wasn’t a single 2017 Forester left on the lot and only a few of other models. I didn’t get the close-out deal I’d hoped for but I did get a deal that was reasonable and put me in a 2018 vehicle when 2017 was barely half over.

I believe the new car stood at approximately the same point in Forester model ranking as the previous one had but it had seven years worth of new bells and whistles. Some, like the rearview camera and adaptive cruise control, I appreciated almost immediately, and it took just one road-crossing deer to convince me that the pre-collision braking was a good thing. The lane departure warning eventually won me over but I’m still not a fan of Lane Keep Assist which tries to keep you from departing a lane without signaling. Fortunately, in my opinion, this latter feature defaults off. 

My first trip after the swap was with an uncle and cousin and used the cousin’s Cadillac. The next trip journal involved the Society for Commercial Archeology in Cincinnati where most of the miles were covered in a tour bus. Then there was a trip in the Miata before the Subaru was put to use on a Thanksgiving trip to Tennessee. It also carried me on a Christmas trip that reached into Georgia and an early April trip to Pittsburgh, PA. It served to mark the “Prev” and “Next” links on the daily pages for those three trips but was otherwise out of sight. It finally broke cover on the late April end-to-end drive of the Jefferson Highway. There was a shot of it all clean and shiny at a car wash in Winnepeg, Canada, then the shot at left of the still clean car about to start down the first of many unpaved sections of the JH. A similar view of the car was incorporated into the cover of a book resulting from that trip, Jefferson Highway All the Way.

With the exception of a fly and drive trip that involved a rental car, The Forester has handled every trip since that 2017 Thanksgiving outing. It hasn’t appeared in a lot of pictures, though, and I suspect it has something to do with that “kind of boring” Quartz Blue Pearl paint. On the 2018 Christmas trip, I caught it in a nighttime shot at South 21 Drive In in Charlotte, NC. In April, it posed in Kentucky at the Cave City Motel as I headed to the Jefferson Highway Conference in Natchitoches, LA.

In June of 2019, on my way to the Lincoln Highway Association conference in Wyoming, I stopped by one of my favorite gas stations in Grand Island, NE. This was my first time at Kensinger Service since the 2016 passing of long-time owner Dick Grudzinski. I missed out on what is still a full-service operation by arriving after the day’s closing. That’s just one of the reasons this is not my favorite picture of the station. It might, however, be my favorite picture of the car.

To date, the blue Subby has carried me on an even dozen documented road trips and, as a very active member of my current two-car fleet, I expect it to carry me on many more. That’s assuming, of course, that I can avoid being stopped at the wrong light at the wrong time.

My Previous Wheels: Chapter 38 — 2003 Mazda Miata
My Next Wheels: Chapter 40 — 1997 Schwinn

Driving a fifty-year-old convertible is great fun; Not so, at least for me, maintaining one. As reported in its own My Wheels chapter, the 1963 Valiant was sold not long after it completed its mission of carrying me over the full length of the Lincoln Highway. I’d already put some thought into what its replacement would be and did some looking as I waited for the Valiant to sell. I wanted something open and fun to drive like my most recent “play” cars but without the repair frequency of the Valiant or the repair expense of the Corvettes. A Mazda Miata seemed to fit my desires quite nicely.

By pure — and extremely lucky — coincidence, a friend and fellow Lincoln Highway fan was downsizing the family fleet and looking to sell his own “play” car. I met Mike and Nancy Hocker at the next Ohio Lincoln Highway gathering, test drove their 2003 Miata, and, after a couple of phone calls and a little negotiation, bought the car a few weeks later. Two owners had preceded the Hockers and apparently all three had used the car for short sunny summer day outings. At eleven years of age, its odometer registered just 37.500 miles; Barely 3,400 a year, 12,500 per owner. I would change that.

I bought the car in early May. The photo at the top of this article was taken on May 21 in the middle of its first trip. It was a three-day outing along the Wonderland Way across Indiana and into Illinois. The picture at left is from its second, somewhat more ambitious trip, a month later. The destination was a Route 66 festival in Kingman, AZ, which would have been a reasonably long drive by itself but I chose to enhance it a bit. I entered Kingman from the west after driving the full length of the Old Spanish Trail from Saint Augustine, FL, to San Diego, CA. The picture was taken near Milton, FL. That trip totaled nearly 7,000 miles which put the car’s miles-since-purchase at about 10,000. I was obviously screwing up its yearly average and the mile-per-owner average didn’t look very safe either. 

To date, the Miata has taken me on nine documented road trips. I still own it and the count will almost certainly increase. Both photos at right are from a 2015 trip to Maine. The first is outside my motel room in Littleton, NH. The second is outside my motel room in Ellsworth, ME. When I bought the car, it was wearing 18-inch wheels with 35 series tires. When it came time to replace the tires, I did the wheels too so they are now 16-inch with 45 series tires.

In the previous My Wheels chapter, I mentioned that I got estimates on repairs to its subject car from a body shop I had experience with. That experience was with this car. I had actually intended to take the Miata on the trip where the Forester got roughed up but it was still in the shop from its own encounter. I was about half a mile from home waiting on a light in the left turn lane. I was the third or fourth car in the line and the non-turn lane to the right was empty. The driver of the Jeep Grand Cherokee immediately in front of me decided that going straight was a better idea than turning left and moved to change lanes. I hit the horn as soon as I saw the backup lights come on so the impact was a slow one but a tow hook on the Jeep still poked a fair-sized hole in the Miata. The Jeep owner accepted responsibility without question and the shop did a nice job on repairs, but that little incident is why it was the Subaru that I took to get slapped around in Virginia.    

I’ve now owned the car for five years or nearly a third of its life. Its mileage has more than doubled to just over 80,000. Problems have been rare and costs have been reasonable. It handles like a go-kart and the 5-speed manual seems just right. The 142 HP is enough. I liken it to an Austin Healey that doesn’t leak oil and actually starts when it’s raining. It is a near perfect play car for an old man who knows that it’s a lot more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow.

My Previous Wheels: Chapter 37 — 2011 Subaru Forester
My Next Wheels: Chapter 39 — 2018 Subaru Forester

Acquiring the 1963 Valiant triggered an overall shuffle in the stable. The two-car garage at my condominium was already filled and the Valiant was clearly not a good replacement for either of the occupants. In fact, it would never become a truly active member of the fleet. Even at its highest level of roadworthiness during my ownership, it required a certain amount of gentle handling and respect for its age. In the beginning, it needed more than that which is how I got away with having three cars for a short while. The Valiant lived offsite getting a new top and other repairs.

During that time, I joked about my 3-V fleet but apparently I never did get a picture of them all together. The Vibe, ‘Vette, and Valiant lineup only existed a few months. By mid-April, the ‘Vette and Vibe had been converted into a Subaru Forester. The Vibe went first and it was the sale of the Corvette that triggered the previously arranged purchase of the Subaru. I continued making bad letter-oriented jokes by pointing out that I’d traded capital-P performance for capital-P practicality.

The Forester really was very practical, and it needed to be as the road trip workhorse. The opening photo is from its first road trip in April of 2011 when it was still new enough to be running temporary tags with the dealer’s filler in the front. A couple of months later, I would drive it to the Lincoln Highway Conference in Tahoe using a lot of Lincoln Highway to get there. That included the pictured unpaved stretch near Orr’s Rance in Utah. I can’t say for certain whether I would or would not have attempted that in a Corvette, but knowing how far away the next pavement was, it seems unlikely. I would have almost certainly tackled it in the Vibe and don’t doubt it would have done just fine. But there wasn’t even a pause to think about it with the Subaru. This is the sort of road it was made for.

It would eventually carry me on 34 documented road trips, second only to the 2006 Corvette. Between April 2011 and May 2014, it handled every road trip except one with a rental and the two Lincoln Highway related outings that were the reason for the Valiant to exist. With over 110,000 miles on the odometer, the Forester and I set out on that 2016 record-breaking drive to Alaska. I got it to pose when we reached the Alaska Highway and used it as a protective camera stand for various wildlife viewings. The entire 11,108-mile trip was essentially trouble-free.

Oil consumption had gone up during the Alaska trip but that was solved with head gasket replacement when I got home. A year later, with 140,000+ miles on the clock, it was performing wonderfully on a trip through Virginia and Maryland. In Harrisburg, VA, a Honda struck me from behind as I sat at a stop light. It didn’t look too bad, and the car was drivable, but I knew it wasn’t going to buff out. Three days later, I returned to the car in a museum parking lot to find a scrap running the length of the left rear door. The Honda driver had instantly taken responsibility and we exchanged our information. Whoever got intimate with my door had simply vanished. I finished the trip then visited a nearby body shop I had some experience with. Repairs would run a few thousand dollars or more depending on what was found when the exhaust was examined. Of course, I was responsible for only part of that, but regardless of whose pocket the money came out of, the end result would be a car worth not a whole lot more than the cost of repair. I had been quite happy driving a six-year-old car with more than 140,000 miles but there’s not much market value in cars like that. I went straight from the body shop to the dealer and traded for a car that will appear in just a couple of chapters.

My Previous Wheels: Chapter 36 1963 Plymouth Valiant
My Next Wheels: Chapter 38 2003 Mazda Miata

This was the car that replaced the Bronco II when its dependability decreased and my dependency on it increased. In addition to providing reliable year-round transportation, I wanted something that could occasionally serve as a sleeping platform as the Bronco had. Part of my shopping ritual was climbing in the back of any candidate to see if I could stretch out. As you can see, the Vibe worked out fairly well for that.

Having a second vehicle that I wasn’t afraid to drive for long distances meant that the Corvette did not have to carry road trip duty all by itself. The little Pontiac wasn’t heavily used in long trips but it did take part in sixteen documented outings. However, not being a particularly glamorous vehicle, it did not show up in many pictures. Both photos included here were taken on a SCCA race weekend when I was proving to someone that I really did sleep in the car.

As mentioned, the car was not glamorous. Nor was it fast, a great handler, super comfortable, or overly capable in snow. But it was adequate in all those departments and it was a Toyota Matrix at heart so it was wonderfully reliable. I got a little more than a hundred thousand miles out of it and, by last report, its third owner is nearing 180,000 after replacing the clutch.

The Vibe didn’t give me much trouble or many stories. I guess the closest thing to a problem was finding the battery dead on three occasions when it was left outside overnight in quite cold temperatures. Online research led me to a possible cause. There was no on/off switch for the headlights. They operated automatically. It was reported that something in the mechanism could freeze up, turn them on in error, and drain the battery. It was suggested that leaving the high beams selected (there was a switch for that) might keep that from happening. I started doing that and never had the problem again but can’t be certain that was the reason.

The list of complaints was almost non-existent but there weren’t many standout features either. There was the legendary Toyota Corolla reliability, of course, and the surprisingly usable interior space. There was an AC outlet that came in handy for charging things and now and then using a laptop computer. Seat height was something I came to appreciate over time. For the Corvette, entry and exit was a matter of falling in and climbing out. It was the reverse for the Bronco. The Vibe seat seemed just right for easily stepping out for a few pictures then just as easily stepping back in.

As I hinted, a non-glamorous highly reliable car is simply not a great source for stories. Looking through the trip reports turned up just one significant mention of the Vibe. It involved the Tail of the Dragon on the TN-NC border. You may recognize the name and, if so, you’ll know that it consists of 318 curves packed into 11 miles. It’s a fun north-to-south downhill challenge for motorcycles and sports cars on sunny days. I drove the Vibe south-to-north up hill in the rain. It just ain’t the same.

My Previous Wheels: Chapter 33 — 1998 Chevrolet Corvette
My Next Wheels: Chapter 35 — 2006 Chevrolet Corvette

You’re a single male, you’re fifty, and your nest is empty. It’s time to order a red convertible. Right? Actually, when those conditions were first met, I ordered a silver coupe. For the first time in fourteen years, a totally new Chevrolet Corvette was introduced for 1997 and I ordered one in June. The car was initially in short supply and the dealer I chose was not a strong believer in the FIFO system of order fulfillment. As details of the next model year began to emerge with my car still unscheduled and my deposit check still uncashed, I canceled the order and went elsewhere to signup for a 1998 model.

A convertible had been added to the lineup for ’98, and by then I’d seen enough ’97 ‘Vettes to get hooked on the Light Carmine Red Metallic color. That’s what I ordered along with the 6-speed manual, Z51 suspension, and museum delivery I’d checked off on the coupe. Thinking of starting the summer off right, I asked for mid-March delivery. As you can see by the time stamp on the museum delivery area photo, they nailed it.

Museum delivery was not nearly as popular or as finely choreographed then as it is now. Today you are introduced to your car as it sits in a line of others scheduled for delivery on the same day, then a museum employee drives it outside before handing it over. In 1998, a day with a scheduled delivery wasn’t all that common, and a day with two was almost rare. My delivery was the second of the day, and the other car was still in place during my guided museum tour. I’d fortunately been told about this before the tour began so that I didn’t go into complete shock when it was time for the big reveal. My car was rolled in after the tour for photos and hand-off.

Back in the last century, new owners drove their new cars out of the museum if desired. The fellow ahead of me chose not to which is why his car was still there during my tour. I, on the other hand, wasn’t about to miss this opportunity. I’d ordered the car without so much as a test ride and the first time I was ever in a moving C5 was when I drove mine out of the museum with my girlfriend in the passenger seat. In the nearly empty lot, I “christened” the car with no name with a few drops of the champagne John had brought along before the bottle was emptied by the three adult members of the Vehicle Acquisition Team.

A fairly recent blog post touched on the cars I’ve used in my documented road trips, and pointed out that the My Wheels series of posts was closing in on them. This is the car that carried me on the first thirteen of those trips, and it actually has a lot to do with this website and that documentation even existing. When I started compiling a list of cars and the trips they’ve been on, I expected this car to have the highest count. I owned it longer than any other of my “road trip cars” and, even though there was another car in the stable during all of those eight and a half years, for the majority of that time the other car was not exactly road trip worthy. Of the 150 trips documented at the time of this writing, fifteen used a rental car or no car at all. Of the remaining 135, the 1998 Corvette was involved in thirty-three. That’s a respectable number but it’s not the highest. In fact, it was topped by two other cars that will eventually appear in this series.

So most of this car’s story is already on this website in the journals of those thirty-three trips from my very first documented trip, when I drove it into a canyon in Arizona, to the car’s last trip, where I discovered that I had no reverse after crossing the Chain of Rocks Bridge.

Those might sound more like low-lights than high-lights but, as John said after the canyon episode, “That’s how you get stories.” This car helped me get a lot of stories. And a lot of pictures. One picture, taken five days before that Arizona off-road excursion, has been a key part of this website ever since. It shows the Corvette on the Route 66 “sidewalk highway” near Miami, Oklahoma. With variously levels of cropping, it has constantly been the primary image on the site’s home page from the day it first appeared. It is also the basis for the site’s favicon (), and it’s been in a movie.

In 2005’s Elizabethtown, Kirsten Dunst surprises Orlando Bloom with a binder filled with maps, brochures, and general tips for a cross country road trip. My 1999 photo is pasted on the cover and appears on the big screen for a second or so. Guess I’m still due 14:59 of fame.

My Previous Wheels: Chapter 32 — 1986 Ford Bronco II
My Next Wheels: Chapter 34 — 2003 Pontiac Vibe

The Camaro was great fun to drive — mostly. On those fairly infrequent Cincinnati snow days, it was not. Well, maybe it was sometimes fun in a perverse slip-sliding-away sort of way, but it sure wasn’t relaxing. After one winter with it as my only vehicle, I went shopping for something a bit more winter friendly. The result was a very experienced V6 5-speed 1986 Eddie Bauer Edition Ford Bronco II.

The Eddie Bauer package included several amenities that made it a near luxury vehicle. It was instantly recognizable by the tan (regardless of base color) lower body trim. Seats and upholstery were special and a premium sound system and power windows and locks were included. My new acquisition had once been a rather prestigious ride. The operative word in that sentence is “been”.

The odometer showed a little more than 10,000 miles but no one would have even briefly thought that accurate. In those days of five digit odometers, this one had clearly passed through its full range at least once. The description that quickly developed was “Everything you absolutely need works. Anything you don’t absolutely need doesn’t”.

When I first got the car, the power door unlocks worked. The lock side of the option had already quit functioning but I could initially unlock both doors with the push of a button. That didn’t last long. Lights for the speedometer and some other gauges worked but other dashboard illumination, such as that for the radio, did not. The dark radio dial was hardly an issue since the premium audio had pretty much quit functioning before I ever saw it. It wasn’t entirely dead, though, and a friend who borrowed the car (It made a good loaner.) described turning it on and listening to a faint but clear broadcast with the volume cranked all the way up. The system’s full capabilities were miraculously restored, and the car filled with ear piercing music, by a bump in the road. It didn’t last long, and another bump soon silenced things completely.

In the photo, the rear door is kept from dropping onto Chris’ head by a wooden dowel as the struts had stopped doing their job long before. I was somewhat surprised and extremely grateful that the power windows fell on the “absolutely needed” side of the great divide. Since air conditioning was apparently not “absolutely needed”, and therefore not working, I appreciated being able to roll down the windows in the summer but it did make me nervous. Having them fail while open and a monsoon approaching seemed almost inevitable but it never happened.

The starter failed a couple of times but even there I was personally lucky. Not so Chris. For me, it failed on pavement within walking distance of home. For her, it happened on a narrow road bordered by snow and mud.

The Bronco was key to making the hundred mile drive to my parents in the winter and as Dad’s health deteriorated its reliability became a concern. I replaced it in 2003 and gave it to my daughter. She had another car but the Bronco’s four wheel drive helped her get to work when snow hit. She lived and worked in town so there was no risk of being stranded on an isolated country road. As I recall, she junked it after one winter.

My Previous Wheels: Chapter 31 — 1994 Chevrolet Camaro
My Next Wheels: Chapter 33 — 1998 Chevrolet Corvette