Movie Tuesday

This is getting embarrassing. Again, no movie on Movie Tuesday. Nothing, nothing, nothing we want to see. Hollywood, get with it.

Instead, Mom and I are taking the Prius to Toyota Service so they can make that "Maintenance Required" notice disappear from out navigation screen. I called to make an appointment and the guy said no appointment was necessary, just come in--we have coffee, doughnuts, etc. Can't wait to service my car. How weird is that?

T.R.O.T.

We need to change our name from Trail Ride on Thursday to No Trail Ride on Thursday. Between vacations and bad weather (today), we haven't had many trail riding days lately. The rest of the month doesn't look good either. Joyce has obligations for two Thursdays and I have jury duty on a Thursday, too. Today was cold and windy so we canceled our ride.

The Prius had a bath this morning and the new floor mats came in, too; later Mom and I drove Spike to the vet to get his stitches out. He is good to go now.

Movie Tuesday

Dennis, Mom & I went to the movies and saw Source Code starring Jake Gyllenhaal. It was a strange story but entertaining just the same. I drove the Prius. I has barely gotten inside the car when 5 turkeys came running up, gobbling up a storm. I backed out of the carport with the help of the backup camera because those crazy turkeys were surrounding the car. When I started to drive forward, the turkeys ran alongside the car and I could see their heads bobbing up and down; one of them was pecking at the front left tire. I finally got ahead of them and sped away. It's a zoo around here.

New Coat for Wildfire

Gary bought a car cover for Wildfire while he was in town this morning. Dennis and I put it on the car and cut a hole for the antenna. We used the provided antenna patch to reinforce the hole, but we didn't trust it would do the job so we applied our trusty duct tape.

Tonight we are having the family over for dinner. I found a recipe for Lemon Artichoke Pesto which we'll have over tiny ravioli filled with squash. I'll make the sauce and Dennis will cook a vegetable (broccoli or asparagus). That should be a good and healthy dinner.

Saturday, March 19

Dennis and I met some friends at the Descanso Junction restaurant for breakfast. Wildfire took us the 21 miles to the restaurant and 21 miles back, with Dennis driving. They did a great job. When we got back home, we sat for a few minutes in the car while we programmed the remote (located on the rearview mirror) for the front gate and Mom's house. Then we paired my iPhone to the car and entered some numbers in the Contact list so we can make handsfree calls. We started to watch the video that came with the car, but we both fell asleep. We'll try again later.

Wildfire

That's the name of my new Barcelona Red Prius. We bought it on the day of Japan's earthquake and tsunami. Talk about timing. It was hard enough to find a red one. I understand production has stopped and the prices are going up.

I used CarsDirect (a wonderful service), who found one for me in San Jose. It was delivered on Friday and Mom, Angie and I took it for a little spin around the ranch and up to the Casino and back. When I pulled it into the carport, the car was filthy--the ranch is a very dry, dusty place. I cleaned it up and we put Mom's car cover (too small) and a blanket on it so the turkeys wouldn't be attracted to it. Those turkeys would peck at the "turkeys" reflected by the shiny car and then they would jump on it for sure.

There were only 8 turkeys today, down from 12. I wonder what happened to those four turkeys? Among the missing is one of the two females, so I guess we are down to one female and 7 males.

Tonight we had dinner at Live Oak Springs, about 5 miles east of us. We saw a sign advertising Mexican food and that sounded good. The menu also included barbeque and Italian food. Hmmm, not a good sign. However, it wasn't bad for a restaurant in the backcountry. We can't afford to be too critical and the price was right.

How to Buy a Car

Okay, we decided to buy a Prius; now what? Dennis and I approached it from two sides: I called Cars Direct and he visited two local Toyota dealers trying to find the car we wanted at a price we wanted to pay. Sounds easy, right? We found a good price rather easily, but we wanted the solar roof/navigation model and I wanted a Barcelona red color. Ha. We almost settled for silver because there were no red ones available anywhere. At first, Cars Direct found one in Santa Margarita, but that didn't pan out; then they found one in North Hollywood, but someone else beat us to it. At the same time, Japan suffered a devastating earthquake and stopped exporting any cars at all. Then Cars Direct found a Barcelona red Prius with solar/nav in San Jose, apparently the last red one on earth. We are in the process of buying it (Cars Direct will FedEx papers to us to sign and have notorized). Then, if all goes well, they will deliver the car to us for $500. Stay tuned.

Prius

In our search for a new car, Angie and I went to several car dealerships in El Cajon and made a list of the possible vehicles to take out for a test drive. The next day, we brought Dennis and Gary to see the cars we selected. First, we went to the Ford dealership and looked at the Edge suv. We determined it was too large and the gas mileage wasn't very good. So that one is out. Then we went to Honda and looked at the new CRV, the same car as I drive now. It's a nice car, but not as fuel efficient as we hoped. Then we went next door to the Toyota dealership and looked at the Prius. We all really liked it. It was comfortable, had some nifty features, and listed up to 50 mpg. Dennis drove the car to Grossmont and I drove it back. The car handled easily and we both liked it. But to be sure, we went on to the Nissan dealer and then to Kia. We didn't see anything that came close to the Prius and didn't drive any other cars.

Rented Prius

The next step was to rent a Prius for a couple of days. I drove it home with Angie and then we took Mom for a ride around the "block." We parked the car in Mom's garage so the turkeys wouldn't get on it. They have a fetish for cars. The next day, Sunday, Dennis drove all of us to breakfast in Barrett Lake. We three women sat in back. It was a cozy fit, but we has plenty of leg room. The two guys sat in front and fiddled with all the gadgets. After breakfast, we drove back to La Posta and took another drive to the Desert Tower past Jacumba. I had never been there so it was interesting. It's quite a place. We climbed the stairs to the top and looked over the Imperial Valley. Not much to see, actually, except a lot of rocks and dirt.

Two hours later we finally arrived back home. Quite a day, but we were all impressed by the Prius. I took it back on Monday and now we're mulling it over. Looks like a good possibility, though.

Photos from our Prius Adventure are now posted on the Prius Adventure page.