A New(Slightly Used) Ride...for Patricia/The Rains Just Won't Stop...

One sunny, but cool, day yesterday....the first one in awhile, and it appears to be the last one for the next two weeks...needless to say the havoc these coming rain events will do to baseball schedules and work in the farm fields is going to be impressive.  Missouri is predicting 9 inches in parts of that state over the next 5 days...meanwhile here in Ohio, upwards of four more on top of the already saturated soils.  I've always said, if I had to do it all over again, I would have spent my life, after the Air Force, in a desert climate.  I really do hate rain, and humidity...and Hell, you can still grow flowers in the desert.  Color me disgusted with this spring...it has been a bummer weather wise.

Despite it all, I got another game in yesterday, making it 18 of 23, at Columbus Grove against Ada in a Northwest Conference Game.   Trailing 2-1 going into the top of the 6th, Ada tied it up, then the underdog Bulldogs took a 5-2 lead in the top of the 7th over the homestanding Bulldogs.   Grove, down by three with 2 down in the bottom half of the 7th, down to their last strike, rallied for four runs, the winning one bouncing by my leg behind the plate, as CG scored on a wild pitch, winning 6-5.  No games today on this Good Friday, it would not have mattered...the rains have re-entered the region, and appear to be sticking around for the next five days...I am afraid to even look further out, because I don't think it will be much better.  The last couple weeks of the Regular season will see much shifting of games, and playing the make up games well into the tournament season, which begins May 7th.  Lots of games cancelled, and lots of shifting of contests is in the future, it appears.

2008 Dodge Nitro___

When I shop, I like to do things quick...I see what I want, take a quick look at it, if I like it, I buy it and let the chips fall where they may drop.  Patricia likes to test, take things back, if she isn't satisfied....

So that set the scene for "Car Shopping" yesterday.  We had agreed she needs a newer ride for work, and for our few travels per year.  My Jeep, with 150,000 plus another 80,000 during tows, is getting much wear and tear on it...and is currently sitting idle with a problem...seems to be seizing belts, and needs looked at.  The 1995 Intrepid was wearing out, and the front end has developed a "wobble"... 144,000 miles one the car, and only 90,000 on the engine, it still had become untrustworthy to drive long distances.  Meanwhile Patrica's 99 Montana Mini Van had reached 170,000, but still was driving and handling pretty good.  The 1977 Buick Landau is in the garage, only 62,000 miles, but in need of some revamping and restoration.

So, we decided a few months ago, the Intrepid would go...Patricia would get a new vehicle, and I would take over the Montana...plenty of room for hauling lawn mowers, baseball gear, and whatever.  I'm not a big "mini van fan"...but I like the room in them.  So the Jeep Wrangler will get repaired, the Intrepid is gone, and I'm now looking like a  "soccer mom" driving a mini van.

We got up, decided to look locally first,  for a new vehicle....a couple of dealers we disregarded out of hand.  What we had in mind was a vehicle with 4 wheel drive, 6 cylinders, good room.  So  nothing small, and with somewhere between 25 and 35 thousand miles on it.  We drove around, seeing not much we though to fit our needs, until we decided to head to West Logan Street, and stopped by R&D Motors.  We had been there last month looking...and we quickly saw three vehicles we liked the looks of.

A 2009 Jeep Cherokee, {we had bought a new one back in 1976, and it was our vehicle of choice for the late 1970s}, but his one had 54,000 miles and was only two wheel drive, without a 4WD option...too many miles and no 4WD option, we crossed this one off our check list.  The next one was a 2011 Ford Edge, we loved the Edge we had rented to take to Hal and Lisa's wedding in West Virginia.  This one had only 1400 miles, 4WD yes, but at $30,000...not in our price range.  We used to buy new, but have not done so since I leased a 1994 Toyota Pick-up back in that year....I learned long ago that "new" vehicles are usually bad investments.  So even with 1400 miles, this one was too new for our price range.  That's more than we owe on our mortgage...so no way we are paying that much money for a car.

The last of the three vehicles....was a 2008 Dodge Nitro.  4WD and 30,100 miles on it...and the price range was what we were looking at....Patricia drove it, we liked the room, we liked the way it drove, the way it set up off the road, and the viewing space out all the windows.  Since she will be driving it most of the time, she had to make the final decision...but I gently pushed her that way.  I like the car, and frankly, as I stated, I hate shopping...I don't care if it's clothes, houses, TVs, or cars.  I hate wheeling and dealing...so we got an offer for the outgoing Intrepid, the lower end price, sans taxes, for the Nitro, and I have to believe we made our best offer....2 hours later, we were driving the Dodge Nitro home.  I mowed the back yard, and headed for Columbus Grove, in "my" 1999 Pontiac Montana.

This morning I took my first drive in the new ride...turned the simple button for the 4WD on the wet roads, and turned up the volume on the radio/cd player...yep, I think we did all right....but like anything else, time will tell.


back later>>>>
Have a Blessed Easter Weekend...


Photos-Several Views of the "New" Dodge Nitro...a 2008, equipped to tow, hopefully gas won't be $6 a gallon, so at least we will be able to travel in it.