The Weekend

Well here we are. Nearly a week late and no sign of Adeline yet. For having very punctual parents this girl is taking her sweet time!

To pass the time yesterday Joel and I picked up where we had left off in our quest for a new car worthy enough to replace the Trusty, Rusty Taurus. (I only say trusty because I don't want to hurt the old girl's feelings, she was liable to call it quits for good at any moment.)
We had been looking at several hybrid cars and had wanted to check out the Ford Escape Hybrid. The only problem with that was that they don't make a lot of them and on the off chance that they show up at dealerships they disappear quickly for prices well above MSRP. I don't know about you all but I kind of wanted to drive one before committing to buying one and waiting 6 months on a list for one to show up didn't exactly appeal to me.

So yesterday we did some calling around and found a dealership that happened to have a 2008 on the lot. The only catch was that it was used. Some Dude bought it about 2 months ago put 800 miles on it and decided he wanted something with a little more power so he traded it in a few days ago. His loss... long story short Joel and I now own a slightly used 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. It's a ton of fun to drive. When you pull to a stop you hear nothing. It sounds like you've stalled out. It's got more umph than we were expecting and certainly more than either car we owned before and you can't beat 34 mpg for an SUV.



So here are a few interesting points worth mentioning.

1. Somewhere along the line my Taurus dropped in value to $400 in the Kelly Blue Book. They gave us $500 for her because last Christmas my wonderful husband put a new stereo with a CD player in it for me. That means that a full 20% of my car's value was in the $99 sound system.

2. Why are American car companies shutting down factories and laying people off yet they have a highly advertised model SUV that they can't keep in stock? Can't they convert some of those plants to produce a car in high demand?

3. In all of our research we found a pretty cool website you should check out if your ADD has kicked in. Its www.fueleconomy.gov and you can go there and figure out the carbon footprint and actual fuel economy of any vehicle you are thinking about buying or may own already.



4. Joel is not a negotiator. I think he was a little scared that I was going to call someone a thief and walk away. (A trick that works great if you are ever trying to buy something in a market on Zanzibar) He negotiated keyless entry for us. I got us 10% off the asking price.

5. Some of you may remember the first Ford Escape that Joel and I drove. It was a rental on our honeymoon and we sunk it in a swamp in the middle of a crocadile reserve in Belize. The Pic below is from when
A. the vehicle was still upright and not filled with swamp water and
B. I still thought it was funny.





Needless to say we got over our deep seeded fear of the smallest of the Ford SUVs and welcome the newest member of the family with excitement and a little saddness for the loss of a close, blue, rusted out, friend. At least until the baby comes........



Sarah