I.F. trip

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'Leenie went on her first trip Saturday. It was to I.F.. We went down there to get a car because the last time I drove the van (here after referred to as the brick) it started an intermittent knocking somewhere in the engine compartment. I managed to limp the brick home and spent the rest of the week driving the durango because Wife really didn't feel like going anywhere. Our little I.F. jaunt was one little fun-fest to be sure. We went to a large dealer and told them of our requirements which were:

• Good mileage
  
• Low miles
  
• less than 3.5K

You might say that it was a fools errand that we were on and the large dealer's salesman more or less indicated that. He directed us to the no-name-other-side-of-the-tracks dealership (Quite literally, the other side of the freeway too) that was owned by the large dealer but didn't have their name anywhere near the place and had us ask for Travis or Juan. This dealership was rather interesting in that when we arrived we noticed that the stereo was turned to a Spanish station and was at a rather high volume. They obviously were catering to the Hispanic community. We saw a 2000 Sunfire that had 75K on it and was in our price range. It had a manual shift which would help Link learn how to drive a manual and looked rather nice. I took it for a test drive and found that is had a click or bump in the steering when I turned the wheel. The salesman tried to convince me that it was an easy fix but I took a pass besides I could barely fit in it. We then went across the street to a mom and pop place but they didn't have anything in our price range. We had lunch then decided to try the rental car sales places. We pulled into the place and was talking to the salesman when a girl in a pick-up started backing up and almost ran into the side of our durango. We hollered for her to stop and she did. She then pulled up and again promptly headed for the side of our car again this time coming within three inches of hitting us. I wisely jumped into the car and moved it as fast as I could. With that crisis averted the man told me that all he had was worn out pieces of rust in that price range. Link in the mean time continually looked at the sporty (they had to have a stripe on the hood) cars that were at least three times what we could afford. We then drove down the road and cruised through an other "best price in town" lot and didn't see anything in our price range but some in Link's taste range. We then proceeded on to one of those lots that has a trailer on it and not much else but cars. We looked at and drove a Japanese car that gave me a crick in my neck and the kids could hardly squeeze into the back (the little ones at that) and a Mopar car that did the same. The salesman then directed me to a Chev that was listed at 6K. I test drove it and couldn't find anything wrong but that the brakes squeaked. I found out later that the business was only going for about three months and was started by a couple guys that left one of the bigger places to start their own enterprise. One of the owners came out and told us the story of the car. He said (note: he is a used car salesman) that the car was bought new by his partners in-laws from his partner who was working the afore mentioned big dealership and was meticulously taken care of by said father-in-law who was a retired teacher. It had 90K and was a '97 so had relative low miles on it. We did the "come into my office and I'll see what I can do." thing and he came down to 4.2K (K means thousand) It was more then we wanted to pay but it seems that you always pay more than you plan on. We decided to get it and signed the papers and all that. Wife was worried that they wouldn't take a personal check but I told her before that if they didn't then we wouldn't get the car. The bonus to all this was that Wife had a screeming headache for most of the day and barely managed to drive home. Anyway, it's in our driveway now and I think we did good but as with everything time will tell.

'Leenie had her first bath today.

" 'sup!"