RIP Blazer

My beloved 1994 Chevrolet Blazer finally died yesterday afternoon. I took it out to the grocery store to pick up some garlic for last night's chili and it blew a head gasket on the way home. The poor thing has around 250,000 miles on it (249,949 to be exact), so I'm not exactly surprised by this occurrence. It will be missed; it was a hardy vehicle that survived two transmissions, three engines, a fire, college, and an obscene cross-country road trip to the Midwest.

Now my attention turns to finding a suitable replacement. I've become so used to driving a smallish SUV that it feels very foreign to drive small, low cars like Johnny's Subaru Impreza or even large pickups like my father's Dodge Ram! These days it seems impossible to find a nice midsize SUV; they seem to be so big and bloated or so small as to be totally impractical. I don't need space for people- I need space for things like saddles, bags of horse feed, the occasional hay bale, various pieces of furniture. I think I've found The Blazer's successor in a 2002 L.L. Bean edition Subaru Outback for sale locally. It's a sturdy, solid vehicle without being huge and overbearing. I'm contacting the seller this week; keep your fingers crossed for me!