Another Crazy Adventure On Our Way To Canada

It really shouldn't be much of a surprise to us, but we have had another adventure while on our way to Canada. Like I said, it shouldn't really surprise me. We have had more damage to our car while in Canada than anywhere else! We have lost our power steering belt on the way home, had a rock hit our window which resulted in a huge crack all across our windshield, got in a car accident that resulted in hundreds of dollars in repairs being needed (luckily the accident wasn't our fualt and we were not required to pay), we got a dent in the side from an overzealous hip bump to completely close the door, and got a flat tire from running over an object in the road. All of this happened either on the way to Canada, while visiting, or returning. So it shouldn't have come as surprise to us when, 2 hours from home, our car stopped on the interstate! I'll try to make this story really short, but it isn't likely to happen.

I suppose it didn't just stop, it did give us some warning by slowing down quickly and allowing us some time to pull over to the shoulder. But it never started up again. We were lucky enough to have a Sherrif come by about 10 minutes after stopping and he called a tow truck in to get us. Finally about 12:00 p.m. we got the car onto the truck and took off to the nearest town: Dillon Montana, which was about 15 miles away. We got towed to a dealership/mechanic shop and we proceeded to wait. We were pretty confident the battery just needed to be changed and the battery did show up not having a charge to it. But that didn't help us! They tried everything and NOTHING would work!! Our little car was not going to start up again...EVER!!!!!! By this time it was about 6:00 and we were beyond tired and frustrated and ready to just give up! So we got a room with a hotel that included a pool and tried to relax. Afterwords we went over to the dealership and found a car we liked. We were allowed to take it over night and get attatched to it.

The next morning we went back nd told them their trick worked. We wanted to buy the car. We had grown attatched to it. So now the truly emotional part: Trying to get a loan!!!! This was an ordeal! I'll spare the details and just say that it took 4 hours, many loan companies denying us any loan, a few phone calls to families, more loan denials, and then finally a loan approval!!! Oh man was this a tough morning!!!! Finally, at about 3:00 in the afternoon, we were able to continue our drive to Canada! Here is a picture of our cars:

Our old stupid Kia Rio

and our new, absolutely wonderful 2007 Ford Taurus

This isn't the right color of our new car. The color is very similar to the Kia pictured above. We really enjoy this car, though!!! I just wish that we could have boughten it under different circumstances. It was just so frustrating to be FORCED to buy a car!! The dealership knew that we no other options and so we were stuck. We were in no position to bargain or try to include any other special offers that are usually able to be discussed when purchasing a new car. But we do feel very blessed. We don't know if it was just a coincedence that we broke down only 15 minutes away from a dealership that was having an awesome sale on every car in the lot. We were able to get the car for 3,000 less than the ticketed price, and about 4,000 less than prices I have been seeing on the internet. Our salesman was also LDS, so we kind of felt a bit better about that aswell. This car also makes us feel safer and it has everything that I wished I could have had in our Kia. It has power windows and doors, cruise control, all the doors lock from one button on the door, it has a remote that you can unlock and lock all the doors with and open the trunck as well. It's just really nice and will fit a growing family that will hopefully come someday.

But Canada was really nice. It was the nice relaxing trip that I really needed. And Michael just LOVES his grandparents, all of them. He's so lucky to have such wonderful family who loves him and ablsolutely adores everything he does! We went swimming, hung out with family, had a bar-b-que, played some games, and went to the zoo. It was a lot of fun and we're glad that we went the full way to Canada and didn't turn around and come back home.