My 2012 Ford Focus (Part 3) – Last Rides, Long Trips

Life has a way of getting in the way of living, sometimes. Case in point, the last time I wrote about my COAL’s was in 2019, and boy, has so much changed since then. COVID, a child and a new career have all entered the picture. Sadly, Elektra (my 2012 Focus companion that I covered in those earlier COAL’s) would not make it through the next few years. It would, however, give me a few more memorable trips before we parted ways, one in particular to the South West.

Let’s pick up where we left off, in 2014.

My job at the travel tourism company was paying the bills, but my satisfaction with my career was at an all-time low. My personal life was uneven as well, but the stasis could only last for so long. Late that summer, I got the tragic news that one of my uncles had passed away. Not unexpectedly, as he had medical issues for some time, but that didn’t make it any less hard. One silver lining that came out of his passing was a conversation with my father about my career, or lack thereof. I casually mentioned that maybe I should go back to school, and to my surprise, he agreed. Not only did he agree, but he offered to help make it happen.

I had an idea floating in my head that maybe I could go back to school for something mental health related. I settled on getting my Master’s in Social Work, and after a lot of time and effort, I was accepted. I submitted my resignation to the travel tourism company and prepared myself for graduate school, The Sequel. I was slowly rebuilding my social life as well, and had a good group of friends who were into old cars. Not any old cars, but Volvos. This would alter the course of my life tremendously.

If you’ll recall in my previous posts about Elektra, I mentioned that it got a good bop on the nose, and I got a good check for $3000. As it so happened, I decided that the small crease on the hood could stay, and I would do something fun with that money. That would turn into my foray into old Volvos, which will come at a later time (and not seven years down the line!). This would also open the can of worms of realizing I could add to my fleet. I ventured back to Horseheads and retrieved Tabitha, my previous Focus and got it back on the road. It was nice to be back in a familiar car, but I really didn’t have a need for the second car and didn’t really do much with it.

In addition to an old Volvo, I also added something else to my fleet – something from my past. I haven’t written about the Honda Element yet, that will get its own two or three part saga. Safe to say, I was on my way to piling up cars faster than I had space for them.

Slowly 2015 moved on, and I made my way successfully through grad school. Turns out having some life experience and time away from school made it easier to be a better student. My grades were all in the A- to A range and I very much enjoyed what I was studying. My classes were virtual, so I had a great deal of flexibility of where I actually ‘went” to class. It was pretty ideal.

Elektra got a few more trips on the books as well. C. and I took a jaunt down to Florida to see my folks in late winter/early spring of 2016. This trip would take us straight down I-95 with the obligatory stops at South of the Border, eventually landing in Cocoa Beach for a few days.  After enjoying the Kennedy Space Center, we then headed up to Tallahassee for a reunion with some friends from my time there, and then back up to I-75. I had never spent any time in Ashville, NC and a quick stop was worth it, more time there in the future is needed.

I was approaching the time when I would have to start my first internship, a daunting experience that I was anxious and nervous about. I decided that one more road trip would be a good idea before I had to buckle down for something akin to a job. I also needed a bit of a reset after getting involved in a tumultuous on and off again relationship that finally was off for good. Wheels turning underneath my body have a way of recharging my soul.

This time it would be a solo trip, just myself, Elektra and my trusty yellow Eureka tent. With the barest of plans, I pointed my Focus towards the South-West corner of the country and took off. Since my parents’ house in Horseheads is a partial days drive, I would always make it a pitstop on any trips.

Refueled by family and a good night’s sleep, I headed off to the West. By this point in my life I’d driven across country several times, most recently in 2014 in this same car. I was heading towards San Diego, so my route would take me through some new places, including Chicago, Memphis (And Elvis’s car collection!), Dallas and down along the Rio Grande on I-10. 

I was happy to return to New Mexico, and even more thrilled about camping at Jumbo Rocks in Joshua Tree National Park. If you have the chance to go there and camp, I highly recommend it. It’s first-come-first serve, and a bit of a ways into JNP so it’s a challenge to time it right, but worth the effort.

I ended my westward portion in San Diego and met up with a cousin for a nice dinner, and a stop at the wonderful and wacky car museum at San Diego Automotive Museum.

The eastward leg of the trip was mostly uneventful, with the exception of running out of gas near Monument Valley AZ/UT.

I had been camping at the staggeringly beautiful Monument Valley campground at the Monument Valley Tribal Park campground and was on my way back to Kayenta to get gas when I spluttered to a stop, about a mile and a half from the gas station.

I was also starting to get sick, and it was a cold and overcast day when I had to set out on foot. I made it all the way to the gas station and bought a can and three gallons of gas. There was a gentleman who was panhandling for money at the station, and he asked me for some money. I looked up, feverish and bedraggled, filling a gas can with no car in sight, and said to him “do I look like I’m in the place to beg from at the moment?” He quickly left me alone. Facing the walk back, I decided to ask for a ride to my car from someone (I know the irony of me now asking for help when I turned someone down is rich…). A very nice gentleman in a King Ranch F-350 offered me a ride back after initially being wary – I just needed a ride, not money. He chatted with me about his family and life for the short ride, and he refused any sort of payment.

One of the things that I look back on this moment with great amusement is exactly where it happened. National Lampoon’s Vacation is an all-time favorite movie of mine. If you’re not familiar with the story, Chevy Chase buys a station wagon and takes “the whole tribe across country”. Along the way they meet misfortune and chaos, including launching the car “fifty-yards” on a dirt road in Monument Valley. Chase is then forced to walk through the desert to the nearest gas station because there is “…a damn gas station every hundred yards for a thousand miles…” but never one when you needed it. I would find myself walking to the same corner that Chase eventually made it to in Kayenta. Having seen the movie dozens of times in my life, I couldn’t help but laugh to myself even as I was in the middle of the trek.

I made my way up through Utah and into Colorado and up into the San Juan Mountains, the first of several times I’ve randomly found myself in this corner of the state. The Rockies overshadow all other mountains in the Mile High state, but the San Juans are just as spectacular in their own right.

It was late enough in the season that I could make my way over Loveland Pass in a normal car without chains or four-wheel-drive, which is always a fun experience versus going through the Eisenhower Tunnel. I stopped in Independence, Missouri to see the Truman Presidential Library and his Presidential Lincoln and his personal dove-grey Plymouth.

The end of the trip found me stopping at the big Import and Exotic show at Carlisle PA to meet up with friends at the Volvo tent, an annual event that I try not to miss. This year I would meet someone at the show who would have an outside influence, both good and bad, on my life.

After the show, I returned to Rhode Island and started my internship. Life went on as normal, with the exception on one major life changing event – I was going to be a father! Part of what I had come to terms with during my cross-country trip was the fact that I was probably never going to be a father. The long days of driving gave me time to think, and I was cool with it by the time I arrived back home. Now, everything that I had worked through was turned upside down. My child was due in October of that year. I was nervous, anxious and excited.

Elektra chugged on as any new car would. I still wasn’t entirely sold on it. It was sluggish when attempting to merge onto a highway, the “chrome” trim on the steering wheel trim started peeling off, and I would run out of gas more times than I care to admit. But it was reliable and was capable of extremely good miles per gallon if driven with a modicum of restraint. It was a manual transmission car so I suffered none of the maladies that plagued Power-Shift Foci, and for that I was thankful.

As 2016 rolled in 2017, Elektra went north to Canada for New Year’s and enjoyed some time in the snow. The heated seats were something that I never thought much about, but when in the cold they were invaluable. On my birthday of that year I got Elektra epically stuck in snowy on-ramp that required a tow to get out. Grad school continued apace as well, and I was starting to feel more grounded in my new life. New dad, new pets, new relationships were all contributing to that feeling. In early Summer of 2017 I would make my next biggest car move, one that would find me behind possibly my favorite vehicle of all that I’ve owned – a Volvo V70. But as they say, that’s a story for another time.

For reasons only known to those with the affliction for cars, I decided to start using the V70 as my daily driver and relegated the Focus to backup. My fleet now numbered six (!) and parking was at a premium at my apartment, so I let C. use my Focus for a while as her Subaru was terminal. I can hear the chorus saying “bad idea”…and they’re right.

In early November of 2017, I got a fateful call. C. had been returning from a friend’s house late at night when an errant GM A-Body (I think it was a Grand Prix) door popped open in front of her in the darkness. We all know just how big, heavy and long those A-body doors are, and the front end of a 2012 Ford Focus is no match. Elektra was down, and probably for good. I had the car towed to a repair shop, and since the car was paid off and I didn’t have full coverage, the bill was going to be in the $4000-$5000 range. C. agreed to make me good for that amount over time, but since I wasn’t really in love with Elektra, I was unsure of how to move forward.

Elektra lingered at my apartment in sorry state for quite some time. I could move it around a few feet here and there. While the damage was significant, other than damaging the radiator, none of the other major systems were damaged. The two unit building I had lived in for the last ten years was sold to new owners who insisted that they wanted my second floor unit, and graciously “allowed” me to move down to the first floor unit, that while identical, just wasn’t as nice. The new landlords also had different ideas of how they wanted things to run and that led to more than a few conflicts. One of those was having a damaged car parked in the driveway or on the street. Elektra was still registered and insured, so it wasn’t like it was illegal, it was just an eyesore. One night they finally had enough and called the city on me – the clock was ticking. Desperate, I asked a good friend of mine in Vermont if he wouldn’t mind storing the car for me. He agreed, so I rented a dolly from U-Haul and was on my way (behind the sixth and previously unmentioned vehicle in my fleet, a bright red Ford Ranger).

Elektra sat in Vermont for some time after that before we were able to source a rust-bitten Focus of the same color. My friend swapped all of the front body parts that needed replacements onto Elektra and it was (mostly) good as new. By this time I had moved on to many other vehicles and just didn’t feel the need to have it in my fleet. In exchange for storing the car for months, I let him sell it to a friend and split the proceeds with him.

Elektra was on to new adventures without me in a rather inglorious end.