The people representing Jeep at Matchstick asked us, along with a bunch of other bloggers, to take a Jeep out for a test drive for a week. We, being car-less urban folk, greedily said yes. What was the first stop after picking the fully loaded Jeep Patriot Latitude X 4×4? Picky grabbed Messy from her office in Germantown and we went on a little adventure to Plymouth Meeting. We had heard wonders about the crazy Whole Foods store out there—the one with the sit-in pub, rooftop garden and more.
Whoa, that Whole Foods is crazy. The aisles in there were literally wide enough to fit a Jeep into them, especially the frozen foods aisle. As you can see, we came away with a nice haul. Several bags full of goodies to keep us going along with a box of six wines our fantastic friend Lindsay gave to us. The wine gift basket was from My Wines Direct and yes, they do ship their CA wines to PA!
Picky just happened to have a relatively clear schedule during the promo and went on a few adventures while Messy was toiling away in her office. With his smart phone loaded with music and plugged into the sound system, he rolled through some parts of North Philly in search of graffiti. He found a few good walls, but this was his favorite spot after backing up the Jeep onto the sidewalk and next to an abandoned lot. He couldn't figure out what exactly that loading dock-like structure was for in the background. While tempted to put the Jeep into full 4×4 and storm the lot, he moved on.
Way down in South Philly is FDR Skate Park, one of those spots photographers flock to like a moth to a flame. Every once in awhile, you just gotta drift down there. With the Jeep, Picky was able to hit a lot of spots around town quickly as opposed to the usual combo of foot/bike/SEPTA. It was midday and the place was fairly empty other than a small photo shoot and a handful of kids. The half pipe stands a few yards from the main run. An imposing sight for most. For a little fun, Picky dropped the Freedom Drive II into full-time 4WD and gunned it through the rough dirt lot full of who-knows-how-deep fresh puddles. With 19" of clearance, it has enough to get over most things. You can cruise over the biggest of speed bumps without a hitch.
Before picking up Messy, he stopped off at another South Philly landmark, Frangelli's Bakery at 9th and Ritner Streets. They make delicious yeasty donuts. They're more like a layer of condensed croissants than a Dunkin Donuts cake donut. Fantastic. The donuts were so good that he went back a few days later only to see that they had just shuttered their doors for the rest of the summer. But rest assured, they've reopened their doors as of today, September 8th.
For a special treat, we went up to North 5th Street into Koreatown. A place nearly inaccessible to car-less Center City residents. Sure, you could take a bus up there, but that would take forever. While it's still a trek from Center City in a car, we made it out there and chowed down at Jong Ka Jib, a soft tofu soup specialty house. Highly recommended by everyone who had ever eaten there, we walked in with high expectations and out with extremely full and content bellies.
Over the weekend we took a last-minute trip to the beach with some friends. We buried our feet in the sand, swallowed enough seawater to remember our childhoods all too well and took in some mid-summer sun.
On our way back from the shore, we had to take a pit stop at Weber's for some root beer floats. One of our passengers mistakenly asked for out drinks to go so we didn't get the full drive-in experience, with the frosty mugs in a tray clipped to our windowsill, but such is life. We still enjoyed our floats! (Weber's also sells their awesome, slightly spicy root beer in 1 gallon glass jugs for those who want to enjoy it at home.)
The Jeep was plenty roomy for the two of us and three of our friends. There was enough room for a run to IKEA to get some much needed shelving for Messy's records (now hanging in our living room!). The city gas mileage lingered at around 14mpg which was abysmal. The 2.4L I4 DOHC 16V engine seemed to like the highway much better where the mileage jumped up to the rated 28mpg.
During our test drive, we clocked nearly 800 miles in the pouring rain and the searing heat. The Jeep handled any puddle we threw at it and the dual-climate AC worked like an ox at all times. And finally, a quick clip showing off one of the very cool features of this fully loaded model: remote start!
just reading this has me wondering why I sold my Jeep ;-(
and how much I want to buy a new one in the Spring
Thanks for the pay-for-post, spamming
Jeez, thanks for your super cheerful post. Spamming? Didn't you come to this site? Nothing secretive about what this post was, nobody's trying to fool anyone.
Sorry, Picky: I have to agree with Matt. This post is entirely out-of-character with your blog. I subscribed to the RSS feed because Messy & Picky is about food and Philly. Sure, there was a little food and a little Philly in this post, but a whole lot of Jeep.
Your response to Matt's criticism is flippant. You're right–I read your blog voluntarily, but that doesn't mean I'll keep reading it.
This was a whole lot of Jeep indeed, but it did allow us to go to some food spots we wouldn't have gone to otherwise. Look out for a longer Jong Ka Jib post. It's the only real Korean food I've had in the Philly area!
This blog has been a labor of love for us for a very long time. We both have very busy, non-high paying jobs and we spend much of our free time seeking out, cooking, eating and writing about food, strictly for fun and usually at our own expense. Although we've been asked to, we do not run traditional ads on this site. But sometimes people want to give us free stuff with the expectation that we'll write about it. Sometimes, for various reasons, we don't end up writing about it at all. But for us, having not had a car (or car insurance) for the past seven years, a free car for a week was REALLY, REALLY EXCITING. And it was mostly exciting because it got us to some great Philly-area places (many food-related) that more mobile folks take for granted. So, maybe we wrote more about the Jeep than is appropriate for a food blog. But this food blog is also about Philadelphia, and about our life, and when something exiting happens, we want to write about it. We're also going to keep taking free stuff, and maybe writing about it and maybe not, but always being completely forthright about what was given to us for free. I am sorry if this post had too much Jeep. And I'm sorry to Jeep that any car company who had given us this access for free would have probably received the same glowing coverage. We had a really good time, now we'll get back to the food!
I totally take my car for granted – looks like you guys had a lot of fun food and mini vacay trips out of it
I'd love a car with remote start (but it's illegal on manual cars….it'd have to be put in secretly….and never leave my car in first gear when I park it!).
14 mpg is painful! but 28is much better… speaking of which, I need to change my fuel and air filters…
Any pics of the donuts?
hey there! it was great to meet you both at Headhouse Farmer's Market on Saturday! if you all do decide to have another potluck, I'd love to bring dessert
And speaking of, I rode right by Frangelli's after I left the market–had I known about their delicious donuts, I would have stopped in!
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