I called the number left on the dash and set up a test drive. Later that afternoon I met a Jamaican guy back on the lot and he got out of his car while talking on his cell, walked over to me, and dropped the key in my hand without making eye contact or breaking stride in his phone conversation.

I loved the way it drove but noticed a small lurch in the engine while idling. Felt suspiciously like a timing belt issue, which is the absolute very last thing I need to deal with before driving some near 4,000 miles across the country towing a trailer. Asked him what he could tell me about timing belt maintenance and he kept cutting me off saying, “this a good car man!”

PASS

Monte sano Pool is a super-charming Norman Rockwell-esque facility that, should, for all its glorious scenic advantages perched as it as on top of a small foothill of the appalachian mountains, and possessing a gorgeous view of the rolling hills surrounding Huntsville, be plagued with the class trappings of a country club. But it’s not, it’s always just folks there. Folks, and like every elementary school teacher that I ever had, and every parent of every childhood friend. Luckily I availed myself of some glovebox-issue visine on the way in. I think I held it together pretty well.

We cracked the beers and started talking trucks. I respect the particular nature of the good old boy wisdom located on this mountain. Truck people, but really utilitarian and smart about it. Although my friend and another respected guru asked me the same thing.

“You been looking into SUVs at all?”

We watched Bonnaroo streamed live to a friend’s HDTV until like 3 in the morning.