New Fishing Car Appreciated

I've been completely happy with my Subaru Outback since I got it in June and have traveled enough to give its ride and useful space a solid test. I was extra happy to have it on Wednesday, though, because of the unexpected 6 inches or so of snow that I wrote about yesterday.

I don't know whether I needed the all-wheel-drive. My friend Tim Mead didn't have to put his Silverado into 4-wheel-drive. However, that was the very sort of circumstance that prompted me to buy the Subaru, despite having been very happy with the Ford Fiesta that was my fishing car before this one and took me all over the country. Between the twisty mountain highways and the rough Forest Service road up Big Wilson Creek, both covered in quite a bit of snow in places, I wouldn't have attempted the trip in the Fiesta, but the Outback handled everything nicely.

In truth, I was just glad to get my fishing car dirty and get it off the highway - even before the snow arrived. Now it looks like it has been much farther north, with an ugly coating of salt and mud. Better clean it off so I can go get it dirty again!

New (to me) Fishing Car

I'm so excited about my new fishing car that I almost wish I was driving it to Maine this morning. "Almost" is a fairly important word in that sentence, though. In truth, driving it to the Greenville/Spartanburg airport and flying the rest of the way will be just fine!

New, of course, only means new to me. It's an '08 that has already traveled just shy of 100 K miles. It seems to have been nicely cared for, though, and is in great condition.

Car is a Subaru Outback, which should be awfully perfect those rainy and snowy days when I still want to fishing and for those times when I want to go a little farther off the pavement but also comfortable for the many highway miles I log. It doesn't quite get the crazy good mileage of my Ford Fiesta, which served me mighty well for three years, but it still gets a pretty good 27 MPG on the highway.

I'm also glad to say that the Fiesta isn't going away. My 19-year-old son Nathaniel needed something that gets a little better mileage than his '95 F150 for a season.

Enough writing now. I'd better hop in the new car and drive to the airport. Smallmouths, pike, largemouths and beautiful Maine brookies are waiting at the other end.

Well Traveled Fishing Car

Folks sometimes like to tally of how many states or countries they've visited or something more specific, like the number of states where they have caught a fish. Not long ago, my 12-year-old son Asher wondered aloud how many states our Ford Fiesta has traveled through in the 2 1/2 years since I bought it used. Asher has helped me log a lot of miles in quite a few states in the Fiesta, so it makes sense that he would think about that question.

I tried just tallying in my head, but that got confusing pretty quickly. So I printed a simple map of the states and starting thinking through travels and coloring in states. When I was finished, I had colored in 39 of 50 states. Two of the blank ones, not surprisingly, were Alaska and Hawaii. Also uncolored was Rhode Island, which is one of two states I've never visited. (The other is Hawaii.) The remaining blank states were in clusters it the upper Midwest and the Southwest and included some states where I've spent plenty of time -- just not in the Fiesta. Maybe someday.

I've admittedly been looking at bit at something with 4WD or AWD, more clearance, a bit more space, and a roof better suited for toting a boat for fishing expeditions, so it's hard to say weather the Fiesta will find it's way to those other regions. That said, the practical space it offers for being so small is astounding, it's comfortable to drive, and I sure like that 40 MPG when I'm logging a load of miles.