Cars

The theme tonight - cars.  This is one of my favorite pictures.  Del, Paul's great uncle, owned a furniture store in Woonsocket.  Pretty cool!


 Funny how the day unfolds and how sometimes you find the unexpected.  Late this afternoon Paul and I made a trip to Goodwill to drop off boxes.  Then we wound up at a car dealership and 3 hours later - a new car.  


We lucked out with Blaine, car salesman, who made it happen and even fed us dinner since by 8pm I was getting hangry.  


We have struggled since being home and only having one car to share.  Bumming rides, stranding the other and planning every outing was getting old.  The car we left in Daytona is not running right and needs to be let go before pouring more money into it.

I learned how to drive in a VW bus, stick shift and living up a hill.  Good thing it was a very slow street.  I bought my first car, a Mustang, overpaid for it and then it was stolen and totaled.  Paul has kept me from overpaying ever again.

Paul had a much longer history with cars.  

                                                Dad, mom, Paul, Del and Don (Daytona Beach)

                                                                    Paul and Michael

                                                            Paul and Michael

                                                            Paul and Michael

                                                            Paul and Michael

                                                                        Paul

                                                        Paul's prized 1986 Mustang

My kids have been "driving" from a young age. Scott was the youngest.  He was responsible for driving the truck in the hay fields at age 8.  He was also really good at the 1/4 mile drive from Don's to our house in Maine!

                                                                            Scott

                                                                        Kevin

                                                            Scott and Megan

My favorite car was our 2006 Suburban.  We lived in that car (figuratively).  Many long car trips with the kids to Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and more.  We pulled the kayaks to North Carolina and the camper as far as Florida.  One of the best features was the DVD player.  Initially I was disappointed that it was in the car but it saved many a ride!  The kids even had headphones so they could hear the movie and Paul and I could not.  Super comfortable with our first heated seats and Thule on top (both so useful during ski season!).

My worst memory is my crash in 2004.  Driving home from Maine, in snow, my wheel caught the edge of the slush and pulled me into the guardrail.  I skid back and forth across the road until coming to a stop on the wrong side of the road with my left tires on top of the guardrail.  Although it was probably only a few seconds, it happened in slow motion and I thought we were going over into the river.  I managed to climb out the passenger side and met Alan in the middle of the road.  He climbed in and pulled the car away.  The strangest thing was looking up and seeing several people walking down the road towards us.  The sheriff showed up, checked us all out while Alan changed the flat tire.  We continued the remainder of the 5 hour trip home without incident.  The extra grill guard we had installed saved the day.  There was no damage to the front of the car, only the grill guard.  

With our new Atlas we will be able to tow the kayaks and smaller boat to the lakes in Maine.  It will also allow us to carpool with the kids.  And Paul got us a bargain!  

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