Farewell to the Outback

We bought our Subaru Outback in June 1989. It was "Ben's car" and fitted his lifestyle well. It safely carried us on many long car trips, hauled kayaks to the beach, transported camping gear, brought home bags of mulch and tons of plants, and ferried three dogs to parks and to the vet. It was a perfect car for not only Ben, but for our life.

As the years and miles added up, however, the inevitable ravages of age took their toll; the windows became balky, the body was rusting, and the a.c. was weak at best. Then we got the bad news that an expensive repair bill would soon be needed and that spurred our decision to replace the car with a brand-new 2011 Outback. It should be here any day, so yesterday we cleaned out the old car, took off the faithful "hump" on top, and sold the car to CarMax.

We felt a tang of sentiment as we watched our faithful car head off into the horizon without us, but we are very excited about getting our new car. Ben is looking forward to the satellite radio and high-tech sound system, I'm looking forward to the key-less entry, and Paul is looking forward to the cool green color.