This post was most recently updated on July 11th, 2015
I have recently become one of those people. You know, the people you hear talk about how they traveled to other states to buy cars or horses, or who have recently returned from a jaunt to a far flung location to look at real estate? Well, ‘those people’ are me. Allow me to explain …
As y’all are aware, I enjoy online shopping. For me, the satisfaction and thrill of finding the exact thing I want at the price I want is a beautiful thing. The only thing that makes it even better is having said thing delivered right to my door. I buy all kinds of every day things online – clothing, candles, toilet paper. And occasionally, more exciting items such as an electric guitar or a water heater appear on my front porch as if by magic. Well, internet magic, right? 😉
Anyway. My husband rarely shops on the internet. But when he does … he buys trucks. Yep, he bought a new pick up truck on the internet in an online auction. Sight unseen. In south Texas. Where we had to go get it. To say I was a little flabber-gasted would be an understatement.
On Wednesday evening he was fiddling around with the laptop while we binge-watched season 3 of Hawaii Five-O on Netflix. He said to me, “Hey, I found this online auction place that sells all kinds of vehicles. It’s pretty cool.” To which I replied, “Hmmm. That’s neat.” Now, I knew he’d been looking at online auto retailers because we were in desperate need of a new ‘summer car’. (This would be the term I’ve coined for our little Taurus which we use to run errands, go to dance classes, ortho appointments, etc. – pretty much anywhere we need to go with only a few family members. It saves us a ton on fuel and we only drive our Excursion when the entire crew needs to go somewhere. Unless the weather or the dirt road is bad, we drive the ‘summer car’.) Our previous summer car died a few months ago from a terminal case of leaking transmission seals. I assumed he was thinking about trying to find a new car on this online auction site, and that whatever he found would be reasonably close by. I was such a fool …
On the following morning, darling husband informed me that he was the lucky winning bid in an online auction on a fabulous diesel pick up. It was several years newer than his current truck, he said. It was a fantastic bargain, he said. It’s in Midland, TX, he said. What?! And, he said, we’ll be leaving Sunday to drive down and get it. Ummmm … okay? Does ‘we’ by any chance refer to you and the frog in your pocket?
After a mad scramble to arrange child care for the Little Miracles (I may be a fool, but not a fool who wants to drag 4 kids across 2 states in June), we were scheduled for a Monday morning departure for Midland. Yippee. I was at the Library in town Saturday afternoon with the kids when that wonderful man of mine called my cell phone with the amazing news that he’d (potentially) found a new summer car! And wouldn’t you just love the luck — it was in Enid, which is practically right on the way to Midland! (It is, in actuality, about 100 or so miles out of the way on the way to Midland, but who’s counting miles?) Now, he warned me, don’t get too excited, (no problem there, hon) but it’s a really nice car and the price was right but there’s a good chance they’d sell something this great really fast. He couldn’t call the dealership until Monday morning before we were to leave. Alrighty then.
He did call Monday morning, bright and early. The car was available. We’ll take it, he told the salesman, we’re on our way and will be there in an hour and a half. We dumped the kids at Granny Carolyn’s and trucked on down the road. About 40 miles from home, he remembered that he forgot the binder with all the information he needed to take delivery of his new truck in Texas and it was sitting comfortably on our dining room table. Home we went. And then we were on the road again, only an hour and a half behind schedule. Miraculous.
Now, I was worried that the dealership wouldn’t still have the car when we finally arrived … 2 hours later than we told them we would. But lucky for us, it was still there. And it was a really nice car. We wrote the check and made arrangements to pick it up later in the week, after our return from Texas. I texted the kids the good news – we had a new summer car! – and our 14 year old was suddenly very concerned that this was the vehicle I’d promised to buy him upon his obtaining his learner’s permit. I assured him this car was not for him and we were cruising south.
I have to say, it was extremely good fortune that we were able to find such a nice car within our budget. That whole Cash for Clunkers fiasco from several years ago has wreaked havoc on the used car market and driven the prices sky high on even the oldest, most worn out vehicles. That’s really bad news for budget-worshipers like us, who are trying to live debt free in a debt-full world. I was pretty happy with the car overall – leather seats, a CD player, OU Sooner red – what more could I want?
Now, this tale isn’t over by a long shot, but you’ll just have to come back in a couple days to find out how the rest of the trip went. I promise you won’t be sorry … although you might have some sympathy for us at the end of it all.
In the mean time, tell me about some of the strangest things you’ve bought on the internet … and keep it clean, please … Doot reads this blog, you know.
Love & Blessings
Farm Mama
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