We took the new car on its first road trip today to Golden Gate Park so we could see the Ansel Adams in Our Time at the de Young Museum. I was a bit surprised when the car put itself into “Highway Driving Assistance” mode soon after I got onto the freeway and turned on cruise control – not only did I get adaptive cruise control, but I got subtle steering assistance to keep the car centered in the lane. It was disconcerting at first, but I think I like it.

We would have gone to see the Ansel Adams exhibit even if we hadn’t bought the new car; we’d reserved tickets a couple of weeks ago when I discovered that this was the final weekend it’ll be at the de Young. We were not alone – it was so crowded that I put on my KN95! I can’t imagine what the crowds will like be tomorrow and Sunday.

The exhibit had many of Adams’ famous photographs as well as some of his lesser-known work, such as his photos of Mazanar. There were also photos that some of his predecessors had taken in spots he’d later photograph, as well as photos from contemporary photographers which the curators selected to be “in dialog” with Adams.

We also visited Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence, which will be on view until mid-October. It was disturbing and interesting, but it didn’t really hit me until I entered the final room where the title work was displayed. Wiley had put his fallen Black rider on the same horse used in the J.E.B. Stuart statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond; I’d seen that statue many times over the years and hadn’t thought much about it (yet another Confederate general on Monument Avenue), but seeing the horse in a different context was enlightening.

We finished the day with a visit to the Japanese Tea Garden, our first since moving to California.

And then we drove home – total distance 103 miles, electricity used 27 kW or so. I know that the Kia Owner’s Portal has more accurate information, but I haven’t found a program to fetch the data and make it useful yet…but I’m sure someone has written one already.

We said goodbye to our 2017 Subaru Impreza Limited today; Carvana came and picked it up. They said it would be going to a farm in the country or something like that. :-)

I’d used the Leasehackr online purchasers list to get bids for the car before we tried to trade it, and I’m glad we did. The Kia dealer wanted to give us about $15.4k; CarMax offered $16k; Carvana offered $18.5k. I could have tried some of the other companies on the list, but I was happy with $18.5k from a company with a good reputation. We’d paid $27k for the car six years ago, so it had held its value pretty well (Subaru might not agree – their “Guaranteed Trade-In” offer was $12,850).

Selling the car was pretty simple; I had to give them information about the car (mileage, condition, color) to get their bid. Once I accepted it, I had to upload the title and our drivers licenses and e-sign a few forms; the next day (yesterday), they confirmed the price and told me to set up an appointment. I wanted to drive the car over to their office (about 7 miles away), but I would have had to wait two weeks to get an appointment; they offered next-day pickup for $290, and I took it.

The driver texted me today, told me when he’d be here, and reminded me to remove the plates and any personal items. He arrived on time, took a few photos, verified the mileage, had me sign a few forms, and put the car on his truck and took it away. The whole process took about 15 minutes.

I celebrated by getting rid of a bunch of old boxes in the garage – monitors, air purifiers, receivers, and more. That was fun – except for having to break up the Styrofoam they’d used to protect things during shipping; I ran out of room in our garbage can before I ran out of Styrofoam!