Hmmm, so we bought a stroller tonight.

A “Zooper Boogie 2005”. It’s a little distressing that strollers have model years. Of course, buying “last year’s” model means that it was a bit cheaper, but “cheap” is not exactly the right word to use. It’s a mid-range stroller, not a “cheap” one, but certainly not one of the stupid-expensive $1000 strollers either.

It’s a “jogger”. I’m not convinced we need a “jogger” since neither of us “jog”, but with the 12″ pneumatic tires, curbs, tree roots, gravel, and other bumps and obstructions become less of an issue, and so we can go for walks in places like the UEL, or the Richmond dikes, or any of the provincial parks too. So that’s good. Of course, the jogger has less storage than the Evenflo, plus no “parental console”, and neither a “child console” so I’m not sure where things are going to go exactly (back packs for mommy, I guess) and I’m not sure how we’re going to feed him snacks on the go … but I’m sure it’ll work out. Other “cons” are that it doesn’t fold very small, and it’s a bit heavy. Pros: It comes with a very versatile canopy, a rain cover, a “sun”/UV cover, a pump, the air-filled tires, hand brake, “remote” lockable front wheel, height-adjustable push-bar, easy adjustable child seat, reversible (!) child seat, and it drives like a dream.

We’ll try it out tomorrow on a hike on Bowen Island and see how it fares.

The sales lady at TJ’s (where we bought the stroller) was warning another customer about Evenflo’s as being unreliable and prone to failure, and then hard to find replacement parts for, so our experience may not have been unusual. Of course, the old stroller as effectively been used every day for 15 months, so it had a good run.

Anyhow, we’ll try this one out and see how it goes. They have a 10 day return policy — hopefully we won’t need to use it.