One week later, we still love our Escape

I feel like I'm driving a little fire truck every time I drive it! I find myself wanting to make little gingham cushions for it, or to add cherry decals. My kitchen is a happy place and now so is my car.

Barry ordered a tow hitch from eTrailer.com and installed it last night himself. I'm very proud of him. Amazing how being required to be careful with money inspires a person to do things for himself or herself that seemed out of reach before. I did my usual thing and bought extra remote key blanks on eBay, had them ground at the local hardware store and then had the car program the chips itself. With the electronic keying systems all the new cars use these days, you'd better be sure you always have 2 programmed keys, so you need to have a spare somewhere. (If you ever lose all but 1 key, and you have to go to the dealership and have them replace it, they charge about $200 EACH KEY. My spare cost about $32 including cutting, which is steep but a whole lot better.) And we also ordered cross bars for the roof rack, which are not included when you buy a Ford with a roof rack. Interesting. We're making the Escape into The Family Car that can carry everything. I'm really enjoying all the extra stuff that came loaded on the vehicle, stuff that we would never have chosen had we been buying it new, as we don't like to pay for options. Like the voice-activated audio system. Barry plugs his iPod in and then I can say "Play... artist... Transsiberian Orchestra" and it starts in playing the opening track of The Lost Christmas Eve. Or "Play... track... Back in Black" and we have AC/DC.

Current average is 29.4 mpg.

Barry wants to get a light bar for it someday for when he actually takes it on a fire scene, but that will be waiting. A long time.

By the way, looking at the photos I posted just one week ago today, I am struck by how much snow has melted. We have had pretty much steady gentle rain for several days now and it's melting the snowbanks away. There was a LOT of snow, though, so it's taking awhile.  Still, I was able to let my banties out on the grass for a little run yesterday afternoon.  They were thrilled.