The Rumbler is gone. After 11 years (8 with us) and 127,000 miles (90,000 with us), we traded it in to a local Mazda dealer for a Mazda Tribute. I wish I could say it was a straight up even trade, but we did have to kick in a few dollars.
Suprisingly, we (maybe not Jodi) were sad to see that car go. When we bought it, Jodi had just been hired to teach in New Prague and I was heading for some place called Mound.
That car drove us to our apartments in New Prague and Spring Park, our townhouse in St. Boni, and our house in Waconia. More importantly, it brought Jodi to the hospital at 2:00 AM on October 9th, 2001 to deliver Jack.
So after a quick and acceptable appraisal by the Mazda dealer it's gone. The car that took us from a couple of DINKS (dual-income no kids) to parents of two boys is heading to a high school parking lot near you.
In it's place we now have a 2006 Mazda SUV with 11,000 miles on it. We like it. It has a zippy 4-cylinder engine, seats 5, and has the basic stuff you expect in a newer car. It's so new to us that I can't quite visualize it. Jodi drove it today despite the boys pleas to have me drive them to day care in it.
We had other business. With the heat wave, it was time to wash the van and put the January tabs on before the police catch me. I can't rely on my grandma down the road to put mud on the expired to tabs to foil the authorities.
Buying the car took quite awhile. We test drove, talked about pricing, got financing etc. In between we had time to walk around the show room. Mazda has some really interesting cars. Ours was actually owned by the dealer and was driven by a manager as a demo. The best perk of that job would be the chance to drive some of those cars around town (and the endless free coffee at the "M Cafe").
