First thing is that luscious pickup truck.
There’s a lot of things I love about it, and top of the list is real 4WD, plus eight long feet of bed.
The downside, the main way that it is limiting me right now, is … 10 mpg. Related, through money, is the fact that if something goes wrong with the 300K+ engine or some other major component, I don’t have any easy way to fund a fast fix.
Right now she’s in maintenance mode for those reasons, a daily driver that I don’t dare to push too hard or too far. As I have time and scraps of cash, I will have the suspension looked at and upgraded. And I will rehab and install the shell I found that covers that eight-foot bed so precisely, so potentially beautifully.
Same goes for the exactly matching trailer (also a 1999, also white). One day, they will make the perfect mobile and modular home for shorter trips, oh Lord, up into the holy Gila, or over in the the vicinity of Blue, Arizona. Down to the fictional south Laramie, which is Deming.
But there needs to be one to drive less expensively, as far as the real Laramie up north too.
That’s where the Pearl replacement I am owed some day factors in.
(And to your point, Grace, once that replacement happens, trading this house in, for one on the land in Silver, starts to become more realistic.)
***
The plans are in constant evolution just like always of course.
But I am 99% sure that it will be another Subaru.
I was sure that it would be a Crosstrek too, and I’d still prefer that, but there may be a tiny problem with that idea.
Which is that it may be on the edge of impossible to sleep comfortably in it … maybe.
I need to measure one for real. The picture shows how the last best hope would work.
To be clear, I don’t even want to sleep right in the car. But I do very much want that to be an option, for emergencies or for extreme minimalist adventures.
Thus: Rather than the Crosstrek, I am at least considering a Forester or an Outback, both of which would add something like 20 cubic feet of cargo capacity, including those crucial few inches of cargo length.
***
A late update that makes a lot of the link-dumping I was going to do here irrelevant.
2026 Subaru Outback, with Hybrid Power and SUV Looks, Is Worth Waiting For
35 mpg for as little as $30,430 base price, per the article.
Which would be damn close to the perfect vehicle for me.
And if that wasn’t enough …
In the last few days, Subaru made another announcement, to the effect that this slick new Outback Hybrid thing will become available, later into 2026, with something called the Wilderness trim.
Which for my purposes means: A hybrid vehicle that is also capable of towing 3500 pounds.
As opposed to the standard 1500.
Do I care? I’m not sure I dare to care yet, because that kind of beyond-perfect also pushes the price past 40K.
And … I’m currently focused on minimalist trailers that weigh closer to a thousand pounds, easily yankable with the very modestly priced brand new Outback Hybrid version …
Making the ten/twelve/fifteen thousand more dollars seem at least extravagant, and maybe even, hate to say it, superfluous.
***
I really need to quit this shit now.
And do some work that matters to contexts much sooner than next March.
As in, like three or four days from now.
Out.