This was the story of our yesterday. Viewing automobiles which were (mostly) waaaaay out of our league. Not class-wise, oh no. We've got enough class to drive any one of these babies. However, our paychecks don't match our sense of style. Dammit. We'd make such good rich people, too. The world is missing out.After spending a productive morning taking care of household business (you didn't think I'd actually get my act together, did you?) we got ourselves together and went to the Arizona Auto Show at the Phoenix Civic Plaza, downtown. Truth be told, I wasn't really looking forward to it, since I tend to roll my eyes at Michael and Calvin's testosterone-inspired statistics. "It gets off the line in xxx seconds." "It's got an xxx engine, V-whatever, such-and-so cylinders." Woo-hoo. My interest? How much will it cost. How much is insurance. How's the gas mileage. And, most definitely, will I look good in it? Yes, oh yes indeedy. Corvette, anyone? Waaaah.
I ended up having a much better time than I thought, which is always the case. I always end up having a good time when we all go out together (when everyone's in a good mood, anyway, which we were yesterday). Calvin and the kids are excellent company, no matter what we're doing. And it was fun to check out the 2001 models of the exotic cars, concept vehicles, and trucks. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the 2001 model Suburban was significantly less cool than our own 1999 model. They reduced the size, for one thing. Less console space, too. I wonder what motivated them to downgrade the vehicle. Probably environmental reasons, although our 'Burban is less environmentally-unfriendly than I thought it would be. Emissions are null, and it's actually pretty good on gas. Sure, it's a land yacht, but we need it. With our family, there ain't no way we're fitting a week's worth of groceries into an Accord.
We're seriously thinking of getting this truck next go-around. Ford F-150 Super Crew. Yeah, baby, yeah. I'm a truck chick. Comes with my upbringing, I guess. If you didn't have a truck in Maine, there were just certain places you couldn't go. Like the grocery store in January. Or up your driveway during an ice-storm. Heh. Now, the streets in Arizona are in excellent condition. There really is no need for a 4X4 unless you plan to go off-roading, which we haven't had the occasion to. I can't help but think that the reason we *haven't* is because we haven't had the right truck. Plus, I like taking the dogs places. I'd rather have a pick-up with a shell to pack 'em in. And we love to go camping. It's harder to do that with a car. Not impossible, just harder.
Which isn't to say that I'd absolutely refuse a car, you know, if I *had* to buy one. My ideal would be a nice little number like this, the truck above, a motorcycle for Calvin (who is very much suffering for the lack of one. His last bike was a Ninja ZX9R, which we had to sell to get out from under some debt his ex left him), a pair of quads, and a pair of jet-ski's. I don't want much, do I? I can get bitten by the "toy" bug as much as any guy. Really, what I like to see is the enthusiasm in Calvin and the kids to do things together as a family. Having a lot of toys promotes that kind of thing. Major automobile and toy purchases in the name of family togetherness. Yeah. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.Okay, this entry probably took serious time to load, so I'm going to give you some more pictures to drool over...
ONWARD and UPWARD!>>>