Chevy Suburban, Goodbye My Golden Steed
Sitting at the wheel of my Chevy Suburban, I was invincible. No road too intimidating, no adventure too extreme.
The golden Suburban carried us across the country and back, into the wild, and on to the top of the highest peaks. We’ve looked out on buffaloes and grizzlies, sand dunes and glaciers. She never strained, even filled to capacity with 8 passengers, a summer’s wardrobe, and all the gear needed to ski, surf, and explore every kind of terrain.
Our Chevy Suburban is possibly the most dependable member of the family. With costly but relatively minor repairs she would be good to go for quite a while longer. But she’s hitting the 10-year-mark, getting close to the 200,000 mile club, and it’s time to let go. It’s time to find a smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicle that will carry us into the next chapters of our family adventures.
But before we say our final goodbyes, I’d like to take a moment to remember some of the good times. Here are just a few shots from our epic road trip across America in 2009.
Kayla acquired a taste for climbing the Chevy Suburban at Monument Rocks, Kansas.
And I picked up a taste for photos in front of monumental rocks, like this one in Arizona.
Pretty soon, I didn’t even care if the rocks were monumental – Canyon De Chelly, Arizona.
America held a bounty of gorgeous backdrops for my Chevy Suburban.
The real challenge was to capture wild animals with the Chevy Suburban.
That’s hard to do when you’re sitting safe behind glass windows in the car.
Even when we returned home to our quiet suburb in Northeast NY, I carried in my heart this wild, untamed land of America. At the wheel of my Chevy Suburban, I was a cowboy of the open range. Unfettered. Adventurous.
You don’t have to say it. I know that it doesn’t matter what car you drive. Once you’ve experienced the freedom of going anywhere you want to go, there’s no going back. I’ll carry this gift inside me, as will my children, no matter what vehicle we drive.
