As much as I don't like having to drive around, it is really a necessity for us.  Yes, we can cut back on driving but the fact remains that Sarah has to get across town to get to work every day and our Camry just isn't as reliable as it once was.  So we've been going on test drives and I've been on the phone with dealers as far away as Duluth looking for available cars.  Unless we find something we really don't like about it, we're going to go with a silver Honda Fit (blue would have been nice, but having a car sooner is more important than color choice).  This is a great little car with lots of cargo room and about as good gas mileage as any other non-hybrid car has.  It would have been nice to be able to wait a couple years to get an all-electric or more affordable hybrid, but such is life.  The thing is, this is a very popular car, and we won't be able to get our hands on one until September some time.  So for now, we try to save some money, walk, bike, and look at a picture.



Simple pleasure - starting to get this car chaos wrapped up
Peace

The plan for the weekend was to pick up Joel, drive to Bemidji, camp at Lake Bemidji State Park, do a relay at the Paul Bunyan Triathlon, drive to Wrenshall to see the Free Range Film Festival and stay there for the night, and then come home on Sunday.

All of that was accomplished, along with the utter chaos of having a car die on us.  Oof-da.

About 20 miles south of Bemidji, the car shook and shuddered when I accelerated to pass someone.  I immediately pulled over and when we looked at things, we saw that we were leaking oil pretty seriously.  After waiting for about an hour for a tow to Bemidji, we had to figure out where we were going to stay for the night as we couldn't drive to the state park any longer.  Multiple phone calls later, we found out that ALL hotels in town were booked for the weekend.  We half-joked about camping in the soft grass of a large cemetery near the auto shop, but we eventually took a cab out to the state park.

I have to say though, that it is wonderful how a campfire and cooking dinner over said fire can really help calm a person down.

We managed to get a cab back to town in time to do our race.  Almost as soon as I gave the timing chip to Joel so he could do the bike leg of the race, I walked over to the auto shop to give them keys to the car so they could check things out.  I walked back to the race in time to see him finish and to see Sarah leave on the run leg of the race.  We all did pretty well and had the 2nd fastest co-ed relay time and now have medals to prove it!  Hooray for hardware.

After the race it was back to the auto shop for them to tell us that the engine was shot.  The guy estimated $1200 on the very cheap end for a used engine and $2500 (plus a grand for labor) for a new(er) engine.  Since we only paid $4000 for the car just a year ago, that didn't seem like it was really worth it.  So then it was time to call some salvage yards.  We got offers of $3-500 for the car, which is a shame 'cause it's only 10 years old and aside from the engine is in decent shape. 

Fortunately, we found out that AAA would reimburse us up to $600 for lodging, food, and transportation for 72 hours after we contacted them.  So we walked to a local bar/grill to have some lunch (our first real food of the day) and to try to figure out what to do next.  We finally were able to reserve what may have been the last rental car in town for a one-way trip back to the cities and the one taxi company in town drove us out to the airport. 

Next, we had to decide what to do with the car - trade it in at a local auto dealership or junk it.  We were given an estimate or $1000 trade-in for it so we went to a couple different dealerships.  We ultimately decided to junk the thing though since we were unsure whether we'd be able to save $500 in the limited selection of cars in Bemidji versus junking it and shopping around in the cities.  So it was goodbye car and hello further uncertainty.

We packed everything into the rental car (including Joel's bike, which was on top of the old car) and drove to Wrenshall all exhausted.  After dinner and a couple beers/glasses of wine, we were feeling a little better and then decided to catch a couple of the short films at the film festival.  That was a decent way to end the evening.

We drove back to the cities yesterday morning, only realizing once we arrived that the one key that we knew of for sure for our second car was with the key for the newly junked car up in Bemidji.  The weekend just wouldn't end, it seemed.  Sarah found a copy of a copy of a key for the car as I was trying to break into the car last night so we would be ok until today at least.

So now we are stuck with the 15 year-old car that we were going to replace first, and are now in the process of looking at new cars.  So it was an eventful weekend.  I suppose, as Sarah said, after such a long string of seemingly wonderful weekends, something like this was bound to happen.  Life is crazy sometimes.

Simple pleasure - AAA paid for my lunch
Peace

My plan for the morning was as follows:

• drink coffee
• watch tour de france
• surf the webbernetz
• have a bit of food
• watch more tour
• gather cycling gear
• do a metric century with the bike club.

Here is how things transpired:

• drink coffee
• watch tour de france
• surf the webbernetz
• have a bit of food
• watch more tour
• gather cycling gear
• change a flat tire on the car and miss the club ride.

*grumble*

I suppose I'll go out on a ride by myself then.  I'd like to put some significant miles on and get to Marine on St. Croix, but we'll see.  Time to look at my maps I think.

Simple pleasure - it's a good looking spare tire
Peace