Our New Blue

We have moved up to northern Indiana to be with some of our family members. It wasn’t our intent to winter in Indiana, but here we are! We stayed in Indiana this year from July through the end of October. Then we traveled to Memphis for about a month, took care of some business, and then moved back to Indiana in December. We are once again staying at Caboose Lake, which is thirty miles north of Lafayette. We will have a hundred-gallon propane tank, which should keep us warm and toasty. It should also allow us to keep enough heat in our underbelly to keep all of our tanks and hoses from freezing.
We sold our SUV and sedan in Memphis, and we purchased a 2018 Jeep Wrangler after arriving in Indiana. In a motorhome, a towed vehicle that is 100% flat towable is a must, and our previous car did not flat tow as well as we hoped it would. Plus, I want to be able to do some easy off-road adventures, and a Ford Fusion bottoms out on even an easy gravel road. The Jeep is the number one rated towed vehicle for a Mortorhome and it handles So, the Jeep Wrangler should be a perfect vehicle for us!
I am hoping that our new Jeep does well on snow and ice. Yesterday we had some sleet, and The Jeep handled well. Some snow showers are predicted this evening and snow on Saturday and Sunday. We shall see. We purchased a Come-a-long and a fleece blanket for our new blue baby in advance of possible bad weather.
I am probably exaggerating winter road conditions and future snow and ice. But I am from Memphis! In Memphis, folks stock up on groceries when they predict flurries. If there is any chance of snow sticking to the ground, schools are closed in advance as a preemptive strike! In Memphis, we don’t do snow!
Now, enough about the weather. I have mixed feelings about our new Jeep Wrangler. To begin with, it is the first time we have spent a lot of money on a used vehicle. Hopefully, it will retain some of its market value when we sell it someday in the future.
I love that we sit up higher in the Jeep. I feel secure that we have enough ground clearance to travel any bumpy, pot-holed-filled road anywhere and never bottom out. The salesman said that a Jeep Wrangler can successfully ford thirty inches of water! That being said, it can ford thirty inches of wet snow as well!
The very first Jeep Wrangler we test drove was a 2018 Jeep Sahara. The Sahara was a great ride! We loved that it moved as smoothly as our sedan! However, when push came to shove, we decided that we couldn’t afford a Jeep Wrangler with the Sahara trim. So, we went with the next best option. We purchased the Jeep Wrangler Sport Unlimited. Our 2018 has many added features found on its more expensive counterpart. But the ride is not near as smooth. I feel like we are traveling in a pickup truck. There is quite a bit of road noise on the highway, and we often hear wind-drag whistling through the roof.
We have a giant step from the ground to the floorboard of the Jeep, and I have to use both the running board and the handgrip to hoist myself into the vehicle! When I am seventy years old, I worry that I will need a chair lift just to get into the Jeep! I guess we will cross that bridge when and if we get to it!
So, for now, I am pretty happy with our new blue baby, and I look forward to many years of Jeeping to come!