A Farewell To My Beautiful Subaru...

 It is a sad day today.   Today, I say goodbye to one of my most trusted friends.   My Loyal steed!  My Faithful Ride and Follower....     My Silver Bullet Subaru.

 It was a great run!   12 years!   Well over 200,000 miles of our own memories!   We traveled the Midwest and even into the deep South. I learned to service, maintain, and even fix many of the problems that a vehicle of that age and use eventually develops.   He was fun to work on and a joy to drive.  There is only one word to describe the time we had him...  Love.

Misty Dawn after 300K.

He will define the Iowa experience.   He had to replace Misty Dawn Subie...  And that was not an easy task.   She also had over 300,000 miles and was a trooper until the end.  But I learned a valuable lesson from her:   When she begins to tell you when her time is nearly up... You should probably listen.  

Never made it to 400,000...

Small things at first.   Seat belt malfunctions, trunk latch sticks, funny sound from the front end,  Blower fails,   AC begins to struggle....    Then,  POOF!   She dies forever at the bank. 

Silver Bullet never left us stranded.  He even made it 15 miles on three cylinders when he blew a head gasket!  In many cases,  when he did break down, I was able to get him running again with simple tools and a little help from a passer by.  It was nice knowing that I had a certain level of experience working on Subie and confidence to fix him with simple tools that I usually had in the trunk.  ( 17mm, 13 mm, and 10mm would solve most problems that I encountered.) I did my own brakes, Changed my own oil, and even did my own body work when the Rust was beginning to eat away at the rear hubs!

The Cancer returns...

The Damage spreads inside.

But the body work did not last.   And the cancer that is rust came back even more destructive that before.   The actual frame began to fail, and the rear bearings would need to be replaced every couple of years.   And then the tire alignments for the back would never be tuned properly.. so tires were a yearly replacement as well.      And then the brakes..  well,  you get the picture.    Midwest snow and salt are hard on vehicles...   Even Subarus.  

So,  With title in hand,   I started him up and drove him on the "Long Walk."   The "Last Ride."  The Final Destination...   It was similar to taking a cat to the Vet, knowing that she/her will not be coming back home with you.  Yes, it was almost that sad!

But I got a decent check for him.  More than the dealership was offering.   And more than if I had simply abandoned it or donated it to some unsuspecting family in need.    I would have felt bad if Subie would have died after just a few weeks with a family who could not afford to repair him.   OR been purchased for a person who had no intent on treating him with cautious gloves or love. In other words, I did not want him being a "beater car."   I feel he deserved more respect than that.   (You would not give an elderly cat to someone who would abuse them, would you?)

There is a slim possibility that someone in the future might discover him and pull him out as a whole to rebuild him.   Even if they gut him and use him as a rally chassis for racing... I feel that would be a better way for him to find his final resting place.  Because Subarus Rally!

And one final note:   I just found out that the Subaru Legacy is scheduled to end production in 2025!   WHAT?    So not only is it the final days for  my trusted and faithful Subie...  It is the beginning of the end for all of the Legacys out there!  I did not read the article completely, but it appears that people want SUV's more than sedans these days.   Of which... I am now a part of that statistic.  

So A Final Farewell to my beautiful Subaru!   He will be missed and remembered for all of those travels we did together.  The Ice Storms we weathered.... And those hard times we endured.  The rear bumper is a testament to our love and memories.   Cheryl suggested I remove his Subaru Symbol to have something to keep from him.   But I decided to leave him fully together so he can rest as one complete unit. And I have plenty of pictures and stories already.    Besides,  the only thing I really want to keep are the memories.   Those are the things that have no weight or space, and you can take them with you everywhere you go in life.  

And isn't that what life is all about?   Collecting memories as we travel along through our time here on Earth...  People fill and clutter their world with meaningless stuff,  only to truly treasure the memories that are attached to only a few items.   And when those items are taken away or lost,   you still have the memories.   They can't take those away from me.   

Because life is too short to get weighed down by stuff.   And every second counts!