Shortcut
After church today, Amy wanted to get some groceries. We had to drive to Dilkon (about an hour south of us), as the store (yes, there’s only one) in the metropolis of Keams Canyon is closed on Sundays. Usually we stay on the paved highways, which are rare on the reservation and, in almost any case, means going out of the way. Why not take the shortcut through the desert this time? Of course!
We recently had traded our two small Saturns for a bigger one, as that agrees more with our new budget, and out in the country we only need one vehicle, and the bigger one had higher clearance, too. Well, it is actually not that big, at least compared to the armored troop carriers some people drive. We wanted to get something that can drive on the occasional dirt road, which, softened by the rain, can develop deep ruts here. The SUV from Saturn, the VUE, seemed a good compromise between a sedan and an off-roader.
[In the German text I explain that “Jeep” is not a smart translation for SUV. Not sure how that became colloquial in Germany…]
So, what a great opportunity to try out our new Saturn VUE! As a matter of fact, even though it looks that way, this car is not really designed for offroad use, which as I understand it, most SUVs are not. They fool the owner into believing they drive an offroad capable vehicle, but the manufacturers know exactly, that the worst most people have to deal with, is when they need to navigate those speedbumps at the local mall.
In any event, I turned south onto a promising dirt road and the fun began!
(Continued in next entry.)