
Welcome to the family, Bruce 2!
So this happened. It’s been a busy month for the Levenbergs. Bruce 1 has recovered nicely from his wounds and gets to retire to mostly grocery shopping and the short commute to school. The Subie had very low miles and was able to bring a nice trade in price toward a brand new Honda Passport. At the end of the day, payments on the Passport will be less than they were for the Acura and we only have a month left on that. So no pain there. And insurance fully covered the repairs, also good news.
It’s a great car and I’d already test driven one, so I knew it was comfortable and fun to drive. Towing capacity for both Bruces is the same, and in fact they have the same engine and basically the same AWD systems. Bruce 2 gets a couple more gears in the transmission and the all important ventilated seat feature. That turns out to be fun for hot flashes. Storage looks about the same, though the Passport for sure has more vertical space. Potentially enough to throw a bike on top of stuff. One of the key features however, is the high ground clearance and departure angle. That means he can make it up our driveway without scraping his butt. He can also handle some decent off roading, so once we actually get to leave lock down, it’ll be fun to go exploring.

He looks right at home in the redwoods
We got to break him in by taking a day trip out to get pie from Gowan’s Oak Tree in Mendocino, again. We needed a mission and apple pie seemed the best possible reason for taking a long drive. It’s important to get about five hundred miles on a new car before towing and we lacked the excuse of driving out to Quebec this time. Richard got in a little ride out to Navarro Beach, and then we turned around and came back home. All good and super fun to play with the new navigation and Apple Car Play tech. One thing we noted is that Bruce 1’s navigation voice always sounded eerily like the master computer from “Logan’s Run.” So you have to second guess just a little bit when the doors autolock. “Is it time to got to Carousel now, Bruce?” Bruce 2’s navigation voice seems more laid back, and a little happier, so no Carousel concerns there.
He got all his accessories installed this week, including hitch and harness. So he should be ready for his first rodeo as soon as “Lola Too” arrives, hopefully next week! Bonus points for the two blue Bruce Brothers looking nice together in the driveway. Things are moving forward!






