Friday, July 08, 2011


This blog has had an uncommon dedication to our “new” 2007 Chevrolet Malibu (the V-6 version). It’s final test and vindication that we did well to finally buy a domestic car was its stellar performance in our almost 10,000 KM drive to South Texas. It never gave us a complaint and it took the sometimes 9 hour drives with aplomb. I almost got the impression that the V-6 was coasting. In Texas we had some 43 degree days. The Malibu’s air conditioner kept us cool and crisp even after parking the car in the heat of the noon day to buy drinks or fill the gas tank.


In many of the interstate highways the posted speed of 75MPH meant that one could exceed it by five more. It took me a while to adjust that the car was cruising effortlessly at 80MPH! I soon got the hang of using the cruise control and it and my driver’s seat made the driving fun and painless.



But never ever travel with three women. The trunk was full to the point that I had to almost shoe horn some items to close the trunk. Every evening the trunk had to be unloaded and the task of re-arranging it the next morning was something I did not look forward to.

Rosemary brought five pairs of shoes. I put some of them around the spare tire compartment as well as the hair dryer that never had to be used. It did not take long before Rosemary asked for the particular pair of shoes that was with the wheel and I had to unload everything.



The girls either watched films on the laptop in the back seat or Lauren would watch a movie and Rebecca would listen to music on her iPod. I rarely played music on the car’s sound system. I liked the noise of the road and the quiet of the big sky and the expansive horizon. Driving was fun and it never felt like a chore. The girls and Rosemary did  a lot of sleeping. I enjoyed the company of my Malibu and the feel of  her ever so tight steering. The years of whining Buick Dynaflow transmissions and uncertain steering are long gone!



The two girls soon got tired of my hauling them out of the car to pose by it for another Malibu picture in Moab, or in Santa Rosa, or in Abilene or Butte. I could fill blogs for the next month with such pictures. But I will not. But there are these here which I took with my iPhone and which I particularly like. The equivalents taken with the film cameras will have to wait for me to process them or to scan them.

No matter how much I praised my Malibu most people simply stared at me as if I were crazy. Praising a Jaguar or a Maserati might be understandable, but a Malibu?



The Malibu (a later post will explain how it was finally named by a friend in Burnet, Texas!) got us there and brought us back without a hitch. I could not ask for more. It did so elegantly, quietly and with not a hint of protest.

Vermilion Cliffs, Arizona

No, I could not ask for more.