A New Legend

Out with the old and in with the new. After a near six month search, I found a replacement for old blue. A new-to-me LX 470 joined the garage family today. It’s not easy finding 100 Series Land Cruisers (or Lexus LX 470) that have the right mix of miles, features, maintenance records, and price…

Legends live forever.

Legends live forever but sometimes they move towns. With some big changes on the horizon, it was time for a shakeup of the Wiktor garage. After many years of fun and a lot learned about what goes on under the hood, the FJ60 went up for sale. Old Blue went quickly which was a little…

Low Water Bridge

While the whole family (including Lucy) would enjoy one weekend a month in a tent with a cup of coffee and a view, sadly it has only been a once or twice a year event. The Virginia heat and humidity subsided just in time for a weekend free of social and work obligations. The perfect…

Adventures in Dadland

While mom was off adventuring in FL, dad embarked on his own adventures with the kids. Maybe it was because the destinations were of interest to dad; maybe it was because dad doesn’t do so well entertaining the crazies without a bona fide project or an actual adventure. Either way, the three amigos made good…

Little Adventures

Little adventures are best embarked upon with little adventurers. Fortunately, there is no shortage of those around here. Lucy, Will, and Sophia all piled into the Land Cruiser for an adventure with Dad today. The truck fired up and west we went. Our goal for the day was to do some exploring in the Shenandoah…

[O]=TOYOTA=[O]

Much to the delight of Meredith, in the midst of snow-pocalypse there sat in the garage one FJ60, partially in pieces. Her disappointment in the loss of the garage parking spot (during the biggest snow storm in 70 years) was only rivaled by my disappointment in the loss of an opportunity to put the rig…

Little Breaks

Little breaks: you’ve got to get them while you can. Life has been keeping us pretty busy as of late but I think we’ve done an okay job carving out enough free time here and there to enjoy ourselves. The near-daily supply of afternoon smoothies keeps the kids smiling and their bellies full (unless Mere…

Off the beaten path

November was quite the hectic month but we managed to sneak away from it all and spend a weekend crossing a couple of things off of our SoCal To-Do list. The first was certainly more exciting for Phil and the kids than Meredith as it involved an off-road adventure in the Land Cruiser. After installing…

Spring Madness

The madness at the house isn’t just constrained to March. It’s been quite the few months…too many late nights at work and too many naps boycotted by the kids at home. I’m told it’s April in a week but I’m not sure what happened to January, February, or March. It seems that the past few…

Sophia’s Blue Truck

One might thing Sophia is a bit young for her first car but don’t tell her. She’s quite certain that the new (old) truck parked outside the house is, as she says, “my blue truck!” So the family grew by about 4,300 lbs of awesomeness this past weekend as a 1985 Toyota FJ60 was purchased….