A substantive upgrade from a Jeep Wrangler. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

I should have known better. I should have known I was buying and not just looking. Well, I knew I was buying this month. I just didn’t know I would be putting down a deposit on my looking day.

Sigh ….

Like any vehicle shopper I had a few criteria about what I wanted in my new ride. Albeit mine were rather simple. I wanted four doors and all wheel drive. I also wanted it to fit in the garage next to mom’s car and for it to fit my massage table without having to fold down the back seats.

The last time I test drove vehicles was during the height of the pandemic when you could go without a sales person. So, naively I thought I would be able to drive the car to my house and actually see if it fit in the garage. (It’s a narrow and short garage.)

Ut-oh, I liked this second vehicle. A lot. But I was concerned about the measurements.

Behzad was accommodating and said let’s just go your house. And so we did. Table fit with a fraction of an inch to spare. He drove it into the garage. Not a ton of space, but it will work.

Until this week I had only owned manual transmission vehicles. I learned to drive with a stick shift. Those were some embarrassing moments stalling on my hometown streets as friends honked as they drove by; pointing as I lurched and sputtered.

Instead of a stick shift to keep my right hand occupied I have a navigation system. I have windows that go up and down with a push of a button instead of crank. I have heated leather seats instead of torn, stained fabric that required seat covers.

Wow, so modern. It’s like going from a rotary phone to an iPhone overnight. I’m overwhelmed with what she can do. I need to sit with her a while with the manual in hand to figure her out.

It was hard trading in the Jeep. This month marked 21 years since I bought her. AJ’s nose prints were still on the windows. That’s what made it hard to leave the Jeepy at the Nissan dealer.

Now I’m driving a Nissan Rogue Sport SL. Let’s hope she’s as good to me as the Jeep was. I loved that little red thing. I hope to love this slightly bigger black mobile just as much. I know she’ll get to Tahoe soon enough. Maybe one day she’ll be a Baja car, too.

I’m definitely ready for a road trip.