Subaru Crew - Meet The Members II

bluesubie

Steve, you can count on a little amount of snow this winter, since you're all prepared with snow tires.

Happy Thanksgiving and travel safe everyone!

-Dennis

originalbitman

Made it to Panama City Beach on Monday. Great trip. Great weather. Took 299 from Eureka to I-5, I-5 to Bakersfield and then over Tahachapi Pass to I-40. I-40 to Amarillo then 287 through Texas to I-49 and then on to I-10 and Florida. After Flagstaff we hardly saw another Soob. Lots of Avalanches in Texa along with Cadillacs and TWO Blackwoods! (I think thats the Lincoln PU/SUV??). We have averaged mid 28s in mpg.

Only problem has been the sad news that our cat Momo has to be put down. Out neighbors who are taking care of him called to tell us his rear legs were paralized. Lots of conversations with the vet ... seems like a mass on the spinal column. Perhaps a tumor. My best buddy and i will miss him. Just sorry I wasn't there for him.

bit.

ateixeira

Congrats James. Maybe by then the Baja will get an H6 and you'll have more choices. Or you could keep the pickup as a beater and still get a new Subie later. The multi-car option is a good one, believe me.

Well, the drive took a record 8 hours this time. Hit traffic in DC, at the MD/DE border (fatalities at that accident brought 2 'copters), all over the place in NJ and NY, the Bronx, and finally between exits 11-26 in CT.

Tati at least loved seeing the helicopters and all the fire/police trucks. Got off on an exit in the Bronx 'cause the little one got fussy, only to find you could not get back on in the same direction! Took a little tour before getting back on I-95.

Funniest part? We're driving in Jersey and our daughter says "Smells like Poopy, Daddy!" Ah, love the smell of toxic waste!

But the best part was waking up to about 6 inches of SNOW! Woo hoo! I've always said they get a real winter in New England, and sure enough the Legacy was covered, looking more like a minivan this morning. It's beautiful outside. Made a snow man, shoveled a little, I love snow!

You should see Hadji jumping around like "Pepe Le Pue", in and out of piles of shoveled snow.

Gotta shuttle two familes around in the Soob, should be no problem at all with AWD. :-) It's Lucky's first time in snow.

-a very thankful juice

ateixeira

bit: sorry to hear that. Ashley had a stroke and was paralized in a similar fashion. I'm sure you were indeed there for your cat for most of his life, so please don't feel like you let him down.

Wow, you saw BOTH Blackwoods! ;-)

-juice

kens

bit: I'm sorry to hear about Momo. I've had to make that decision before for a pet cat.

juice: Tati's comment cracked me up. It reminded me of when I used to take road trips from NYC over into the industrial area of Jersey. Stinky, stinky, stinky!

Ken

lucien2

Sadness. as you know, we lost Kovey 2 weeks ago- she passed away around midnight, emitting an eerie final meow. The dog went to investigate the noise ahead of us sleepy heads and came back with her tail between her legs and headed right for her crate. Then we got there. Not a fun night. Our condolences to you on the loss of a family friend.

On a happier note, everyone please have a safe and loving Thanksgiving day!

rangerron7

Bit:
Sorry to hear the sad news.
Take Care,
Ron

bat1161

Bit,

Sorry to hear of the loss of Momo.

To all the Crew and their families:

Have a Happy, Safe, Thanksgiving!

Mark

hondafriek

Sorry to hear about the loss of Momo, try remember all the fun times you had together, this helped me over the loss of my beloved dog Toby last year.

Cheers Pat.

subaru_team

I'm so sorry to learn of Momo's problem. I'm sure you gave her a wonderful life.

Patti

subaru_team

to all of the Edmunds Crew. I'm thankful to know you all and to share in our daily blessings!

Patti

hypov

I'm thankful for owning a Subaru, especially that it was a Subie [Al'gator] I drove on Oct. 06, 2002.
And, equally thankful I am for the daily blessings too. Not forgetting the Crew I've come to know.

-Dave

hammersley

...to the entire crew & their (our) families that put up with us all:
Have a safe & enjoyable Thankgiving holiday weekend... we had ours at our house yesterday, due to my having to work my usual 24 hour shift today.

Personally, besides my family, of course, I'm most thankful for a stable, good-paying job doing something I enjoy, and occasionally making a difference in people's lives... what a blessing that is in & by itself! Roof over my head, the bills get paid on time, and I eat better than I probably should!

Busy weekend at our place... 2 birthday kids next week, but celebrating on the weekend.

Bit: condolences, sir... be thankful of the joy that Momo brought, and knowing his suffering was minimal. Treasure the good memories.

Great day, all...
Paul

ladywclass

I thought one of those Blackwoods were supposed to be always kept in an "undisclosed" location ...

fibber2

with family in from Boca Raton, Dallas, Long Island, us from the Hudson Valley - all gathering in VA.

Juice - we also spent 3 hours Tuesday evening on local roads trying to go around the DE/MD wreck on I-95. Southbound was completely shut down for several hours. Sounds like I should have left my snow tires for you to use!

Bit - Another pet loss in the Edmunds family. We are all so sorry for your loss.

Steve

wrxsoon1

Was great here in Seattle as well. Unusually dry and sunny. Usually skiing in the mountains by now ;-(. Hope everyone had a wonderful day!

Bit - My condolences for your loss of Momo. My fiancee and I have 2 cats that we love very much. We don't like thinking about when they'll pass on, too sad.

Happy Holiday's to all!

-Ian

bsvoller

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone here. Hope you all had a great one.

Mom drove out to Denver from Chicago in her new lil red '03 TS Wagon. Nice little car ! Enjoyed a very nice extended weekend with her before seeing her off last night.

Seems she hasn't read the owner's manual yet, though. Got a call from her at 6:20 this am, saying that her check engine light was on, and what should she do... "Do you always twist the gas cap until it clicks 3 times ?" "No, usually doesn't click at all..." You know the rest of the story. Also pointed out that she has Subaru Roadside Assistance on the TS, since it's new... Ah well, all's well that end's well.

-bit, sorry about your loss.

-Patti, great to see you posting again.

Back to the grind again tomorrow...

-brianV

rsholland

Sorry to read about Momo's passing.

Bob

fibber2

New Millford, CT? About 25 miles from me. Take some back roads (great driving) around Candlewood Lake to Pawling, NY. Eight miles from there to my driveway!!! Hey, the Subi snow tires were in the garage - I could have told you where to find the key....

We avoided the NJ Tpke on the way home by swinging closer to Philly and Trenton on I-295. Hope you didn't get stuck too bad.

Steve

rsholland

is absolutely the worst road to be on during the Thanksgiving holidays. Just when you think the NJ Turnpike can't get any worse—it does. I remember there were several times when I rarely got out of 2nd or 3rd gear for much of the Turnpike. I've taken it every year since 1966, except this year.

In the past we used to drive to Long Island, but this year we went to the Catskills, and drove through PA instead. From Baltimore we went: I-83 to Harrisburg, picked up I-81 to just past Scranton, then picked up I-84 to the NY Throughway (I-87). It was a wonderful drive; gorgeous scenery and very little traffic (for this holiday).

Bob

Karen_S

I hope everyone had a good holiday!

Bit: So sorry about Momo. Seems like we've been losing a lot of Crew animal friends lately.

One little announcement...I started a new discussion, Subaru Crew: What did you pay?. That discussion has been quite popular on other owners boards. If you've just purchased, please share your experience there.

Thanks!

fibber2

A good part of the problem for Southbound traffic is the exit 1 toll booth at the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Yesterday it had traffic backed up most of the way to exit 4. It looks like they are building a new plaza about 2 miles north of the existing one, which may help...

We used I-295 up to Trenton, then US-1 thru Princeton to Rt 206 up to I-287, which becomes the NYS Truway when it reaches the border. We did the 385 miles in near record time yesterday.

Where in the Catskills? Beth is from Monticello.

Steve

paisan

I've found that the best thing to do it just plan my travelling around when the NJTP isn't so crowded. When I used to go to school in philly and worked in NYC 2 days a week I tried several different plans.

I95->Rte1->Rte440->SI
I95->I195 in trenton->NJTP(exit 7a)->440->SI
I95->Some backroad along DE river->206/202->22->440->SI
Rte 37->NJTP(exit 4)->440->SI
I76->PATP->NJTP->440->SI

I found that Rte37->NJTP(exit4)->440->SI worked the best after the speed limit was moved to 65mph.

The biggest problem I find now on highways in the NE are that they don't have EZ Pass lanes that extend far enough up the highway, I think they should institute barriers for EZpass 2 miles before tha toll plazas so that EZpass folks like myself don't have to wade through the folks who don't have it. A cheaper method would be to block off the left lane 2 miles before the barriers and make them EZ pass only lanes

-mike

PS:Do you think I like EZpass?

fibber2

but agree that most toll plazas are poorly designed to make proper use of it. You spend too much time in line waiting to get to a lane. And in Maryland/Delaware, some of the bigger plaza's still only have a single No-Cash lane.

Steve

rsholland

We stayed at the Scribner Hollow Lodge, at the foot of Hunter Mountain in Hunter NY. It's in the northern part of the Catskills, perhaps an hour from Albany. The food was superb. It was cold (20 degrees) and there was snow on the ground. I got to test my new Yokohama Avid H4s in the snow. For a tire that's not rated as a great snow tire, they did just fine.

http://www.scribnerhollow.com/

Loosh- Check out the food menu... BTW, the meals were included with our room price.

Bob

ateixeira

The only thing worse than the drive up was the drive back! 9.5 hours! Should've taken 5! We came on Saturday, too, I imagine Sunday was worse!

I actually did hop off the NJT at exit 7A and took I-295, which saved us hours, but only after losing about 2 hours sitting in traffic. And before that we lost time in the Bronx. Tough to find a public rest room there, too!

Next time I'll ask Bob and Steve for suggestions before we leave.

At least we saw 6" of snow, got to go sledding and even made a snow man. Also, there was rain/hail on the way back at one point, so AWD proved to be key. My brother-in-law's Prelude got stuck in his front yard, LOL.

Anybody else tired of Turkey? Breast, sandwiches, soup, what else can you make with the stuff? I'm in the mood for some grille Turbot with Rally Bread, and Brenda's MF Cookies.

Blackwood - read this week's Autoweek, they mention that some dealers in SoCal are having a buy one get one free sale - buy a 2002 Blackwood at full list, get a 2002 Cougar free. They're serious, too. $52,500 for both.

I'd still buy an Avalanche and a WRX. :-)

-juice

paisan

Why did you go through the bronx again???



-mike

nygreg

to all. Hope everyone had an enjoyable week. I was so busy working on the house, I didn't get a chance to change the oil in the OB. I think she's mad at me.

Greg

nygreg

I finally called Liberty Mutual and they gave me a quote $200 cheaper than my current insurer. Insweb.com gave me 1 quote so far which is about equal to Liberty's. I will check with Geico also.

Greg

ateixeira

mike: I did the bypass last year, and it wasn't really quicker than the year before. Thing is, I think post 9/11/01 there are a LOT more folks who travel by car. So I'm sure the Turnpike/Bronx was even worse.

We're going during August next year. The in-laws live near the Long Island Sound, so at least there's a psuedo-beach for the kids to play.

Cool Greg, keep us posted. 800-507-7561 for anyone else interested.

-juice

kens

Got in to Tokyo last evening. Woke up at 4:30AM this morning. Man, I hate jet lag...

Gotta go find some Subie dealers!

Ken

ateixeira

Lucky duck. Enjoy the food. :-)

-juice

grahampeters

G'day

Had my Outback serviced yesterday (87500km or 55000miles) including replacing brake pads all round, machining discs and replacing a torn drive shaft boot. A fairly pricey exercise all up but meant that I had time to look over the full range of Subarus.

Found myself talking to the fleet manager for the dealership who is "an enthusiast" owning a 99 Forester GT turbo, a Saab 900 EMS and having choice of daily drivers from the Subaru range. I asked about the absence of the Turbo from the Forester line up at present and he confirmed that it will reappear in September 2003 when they have got the production version of the 2.5l turbo sorted. He says they are expecting 145-150kw (think that translates to about 200bhp) or more with fairly high torque. This is detuned from the WRX turbo in line with the last generation Forester Turbo which had higher torque, shorter turbo lag but lower overall power. The Forester GT was quicker through the gears than a WRX so that would fit.

Tempted to wait to replace the Outback until it appears.

Cheers

Graham

rsholland

Just learned the Baja may get that engine too.

Speaking of the Baja, do you think Subaru will offer it in Oz?

Bob

grahampeters

G'day

Not sure that the Baja would travel well. I still think it is a very narrow niche car and the thin market for it in the US suggests it would be uneconomic in a smaller market like Australia, particularly when you factor in transport costs between us.

Cheers

Graham

ken_from_nj

don't make too much fun of the nj tpke - it doesn't all smell 'poopy' LOL - lots of NJ areas much nicer - remember - the tpke runs thru the industrial parts mainly.
anyways - business in intl shipping is still busier than you would think. the uswc unions look as if the've come to a deal/arrangement with the pma although the fat lady still hasn't sung that song yet. usa is still majorly trade imbalanced although i deal mainly in imports so there's tons of work and i suspect it won't slow down. volumes although strong over past 6 months are still overall somewhat weak & freight rates depressed - need capacity to tighten up to drive up the rates a bit but that's the market.
as for turkey day week - had a good drive out to ohio & back to nj and also made a trip up to geneva, ny via rt 80/380 to scranton, rt 81 to syracuse & 90 west to geneva. the dusting of snow made everything look nice & the roads weren't at all covered/bad. getting cold though - winter's coming - sure do like those heated seats in the '03 xs forester. average mpg looks to be around 25 mpg btwn both trips. good to be home though.

ateixeira

Sorry, it wasn't my opinion, just a 3 year old's! ;-)

We hit a mall in CT on Friday, and later in the evening there were lots and lots of empty parking spots. Not a good sign for an economy that needs a boost.

-juice

dude

I stayed in line for about 35-40 minutes on Friday at 11am at a local best buy store. Barely found parking...

ladywclass

We got to Best Buy at 6:30 AM. The store opened at 6:00. The line was about 100 yards long as they were only letting in 150 at a time. We didn't even park - went for breakfast, then hit the Radio Shack ... lol
I'll have to remember all I "got" for Christmas since I'm already "playing" with my "toys" ....
new speakers (with subwoofer) for the computer, PDA, digital piano ... we even bought a couple of things for the kids ...
Juice - I was just thinking it's about time to make MF cookies .. it's been awhile .. I DID make some of my specialty spicy Chex mix ... it has a BITE!
Brenda

fibber2

just parts of it. Most travelers stay on the overburdened main highways (NJT, etc.) and never get to see places like Cape May, Princeton, the Water Gap region, etc.

Bob: Looks like a nice lodge. Was it pretty empty for Thanksgiving?

Juice: I just realized some confusion. Were you in Milford or New Milford? Milford is on the coast between Bridgeport and New Haven. I am across the boader from New Milford (north of Danbury along route 7).

Steve

rsholland

<< Bob: Looks like a nice lodge. Was it pretty empty for Thanksgiving? >>

Yes it was. There were a few families there, but it was pretty empty, which made it very nice. There were a number of skiers on the slopes, however. We could watch them from our room and from the dining area.

Re: NJ-
Yes there are nice areas. I grew up in Highland Park, just across the Raritan River from New Brunswick. I've spent a lot of time in Princeton, northern NJ, and at the beaches&#151;and yes, it's very nice. Now, if only they could do something about the Newark and Camden areas, and the turnpike...

Bob

fibber2

so I waxed the new wheels last night and hope to switch to the Dunlop Winter Sport tires this evening. Stay tuned for a full report....

Steve

nygreg

Try not to get too excited. We are only expected to get an inch or two. The city is expecting more as the storm will track south of us. But, it does appear to be turning into a nice winter.

Juice - you should get a chance to have some fun later today. Which one - Forester or Legacy? hmmmm

Greg

jay_24

Last night we (Minneapolis, MN) got about 1-2 inches snow. Got to have some fun before hitting the interstate which was salt and sanded. AWD and anti-lock breaks preformed well. I'm still using the original firestones and traction was ok/good.

Still wishing for 6+ inches.... we got 6 to 8 inches when my first daughter was born. Kid #3 is just days away. I just hope the Doc has a subie too!

-jay

nygreg

That's great. Hope things go well for you and your wife. I drove my wife to the hospital in the middle of the night with my first born, in a snow storm with a Mustang GT!!!. Wish I had a subie then.

Greg

ateixeira

Forester for sure. Much better clearance. And the tires break traction sooner in snow, so it's a hoot.

Looks like anywhere from 4 to 10 inches. I hope we get liberal leave. :-)

Joke: do conservatives also get the day off?

Jay: you may have to drive to the doc's house!

I had a Mustang, that thing was scary in the snow. Just scary.

-juice

lucien2

At lunch NASIOC goes nuts and TH goes dead. THat means you all lurk here during actual work hours and then eat off campus!

paisan

Speaking of which, it's lunch time!

-mike

nygreg

was purchased in so-cal - perfect car for the climate. Shortly after moving back to NY, about 1" of snow was enough to send me into a guard rail. Very twitchy rear end.

Greg

ateixeira

If you get a fair-weather car, at least get one where the top drops, like a Miata. :-)

-juice