It's Not A Mini-Van!

During this time of increasing gas prices and limited gas supply, we decided that our best move would be to buy an SUV. Yup, that's right, after 3 years, we are once again a 2-car household. It just didn't seem right to live in the greater Los Angeles area without a car to driver ratio of greater than or equal to 1. It's just anti-LA-culture.

This is the first car that Dan and I have purchased together. As you may know, I have had small cars in the past. My last car was a 2-door Saturn Coupe. The car before that was a 2-door Fiero. Now, with more seats than both of my previous cars combined, we have a 4-door Honda Pilot. You see, it is a rule that if you are a Kroboth, you have to buy a Honda.

Lots of Seats!
The Pilot has eight seats available! That means we can go places with Scot and Tammy and baby Zimry (or various other couples with a kid or two). It works to fit 3 car seats across the back seat, Dan and I can sit in the front, then Scot and Tammy can fit in the second back seat, with one seat surplus. (Obviously Scot and Tammy need one more kid so we can take full advantage of all of the seats.)

Lots of Cargo Space!
We can also move lots of things. Yes, in fact, a few days after we got the Pilot, Dan dropped off our extra dresser at Hillary's house. It fit inside the Pilot... with both kids! The third row of the Pilot folds down, which is the default state for it these days. So, if you need something moved, we are now those people who you call to harass. Act now before the novelty of having a big car wears off.

Dresser in Pilot

We can also go to Costco and not try to figure out where to put all of the large items. In the past, sometimes the giant package of paper towels would end up in the passenger compartment with the kids trying to see each other around it. No longer! Everything we could possibly fit in the Costco cart now fits in the Pilot. It's not even challenging anymore to figure out where to put everything.

Un-challenging Loading of Costco Stuff

Above the Crowd
It's a completely different experience to drive an SUV. You can see farther down the road. You can actually reach the window at the drive-thru Starbucks.

Camera Phone Picture of Starbucks Drive-Thru

Notice the poor, low car at the window receiving coffee in an awkward manner.
That used to be us. Now we can reach!

Fortunately the Pilot drives a lot like our Accord. It also has a great turning radius. I'm still working on parking properly with one turn, but other than that, it is surprisingly not like driving a mini-van.

Not a Mini-Van
For a while, Will decided that he would call the Pilot a minivan. Of course, I addressed this terrible error immediately. "It's not a minivan" became the phrase of the week. I'm not sure where this came from as he had spent the 2 months prior to the Pilot acquisition saying, "Our car is dirty, we need to get a Pilot-Car" and "Our car is broken, we need to get a Pilot-Car" and "Our car has a dent, we need to get a Pilot-Car" and "We need to go to the car store to get a Pilot-Car." You see, at the end of July, Will, Alex and I went to test drive the "Pilot-Car." It kind of stuck with Will. So now we call one car, "The Pilot Car" and the other one "Dan's Car."

So, come one, come all, see our Pilot-Car. Now, if you visit us and need to be picked up at the airport, we can do it! If you want to engage in some sort of household project with us while you are here, we can go to Home Depot and buy large amounts of wood! Yea!