Goodbye Bessy!

Our huge tank of a car, Bessy, has been a decent car.  We bought that car in the middle of sheer chaos after returning from our crazy trip home from Alaska.  NOTHING was in order at that time and all things just had to kind of happen.  It's a wonder we survived.  But we did come out of it alive, and with a vehicle.  I won't say I was ever completely in love with Bessy.  She was a good car.  I loved that it wasn't a minivan, that was for sure.  I like the power, she sounded like a desil engine.  We LOVED the stereo, the DVD players and all the other little "perks" we found.  But I guess, as the perks died, or in some cases, got stolen, Bessy kind of lost her spark.  Over the last few years, things had really gone downhill for her!  Starting with the gear shifter being one off.  So instead of putting her in reverse, you had to put her in neutral to back up.  It was strange, we got used to it.  Then the face on the stereo got lifted.  That was a HUGE bummer!!  For everyone!  No DVD's, CD's, OR radio.  Then the key got stuck in the ignition.  And now I can say, we've had that key stuck in the ignition for almost 3 years, and not once did our car get stolen.  And thanks to that lovely problem, we had to jump start that dead battery probably a hundred times (no exaggeration) always at the most inconvenient times!  And I must give MOST of the credit to my Dad and Steve for that... it was a huge blessing to be living right there with them when this problem started.  They were still so helpful when we moved, but it was way more of an imposition, that's for sure.  All the while, our air conditioning never really did work.  We would roll down the windows and have the wind blowing in our hair, complete silence since you had to scream to be heard, all the way to Daybreak for the family meetings in the Summer, and yet the kids would still end up soaking wet from sweat, and completely knocked out from the heat.  Fun stuff.  Let's see, what else?  OH!  The leaky ceiling.  The drips all night long when we got stuck sleeping in the car up at Bear Lake... that was a classic.  Always having that little wet spot on my pant leg after driving in the rain. The floor vents were not really connected to any kind of heating system as far as I could tell because no matter what the temperature was outside, my legs were always freezing.  Kind of a fun one in the winter.  All of the vent covers were falling from the ceilings, along with the center overhead console to control the heating and cooling in the back seat.  We had to stretch out the fake leather hole to make it hang in the ceiling.  Pretty exciting to have it fall out and be dangling there anytime we went over a bump.  Embarrassing if there were any friends in the car.  The child locks on the back doors were broken, but broken in the on position, so you couldn't open them from the inside.  That was always fun for the kids getting out at school...  I'm pretty sure we looked like a clown car unloading.  

As you can see, it was a fun car :).  I think for the most part, we just got used to her quirks.  Things really didn't seem to matter all at once.  And really, if it weren't for the need to have one more seat, we probably would have stuck it out with Bessy a little longer.  We had finally paid her off and not having a car payment was definitely a plus!  But the day came!  

We spent our last couple of hours with Bessy on Monday night , cleaning her out.  We ended up with 2 bags of stuff, and 2 bags of garbage, vacuumed her out, and said our final goodbyes (though we know we'll see plenty of her since she was sold to the guy up the street)

And then we went back into the dealership , Nate signed his life away (and a portion of his paycheck), and we drove home with our new (to us) 2008 Chevy Suburban.  

I can't tell you how wonderful it feels to drive!!!  I know we were pretty easy to sell to, and just about anything that had air conditioning and no clickety-clacking in my ear, would have done the job.  But this car really is a good one!  It's so cozy!  No cracking vinyl, and it's SO CLEAN!!!  We're hoping to keep it as nice as we can for as long as we can!  Hopefully that will be longer than I think :).  The kids were SO excited!!  It was so fun to experience with them.  The look on Erika's face when we put her in the new car, and her little oooooohs and aaaahhhs.  So priceless!  And they are all so anxious to take care of it and be gentle with it.  It really was a lot of fun for all of us.  We have yet to name her, but that won't take long, I'm sure.

After we brought Bessy home, we all went up to Grandpa Hatch's house to show him.  Everyone who knows my Dad knows he's a fun person to show a new car to. He wanted to go for a ride, so we did :).  Then after we got home, we ordered pizza and bummed around his house for a couple hours while Nate watched the Jazz game.  It was a lot of fun.  And Steve came home and let me show off our new car to him too :).  Love that.  The two best people to take for a ride in your new car, and they were right there, ready to have fun with us :).  Love that.

So anyway.  That's our story.  I need to find a picture of Bessy.  Don, the guy that bought it has already done a bunch of work on her, and she's starting to look all pretty again!  It's nice to know she'll be taken care of.  

Time to move on.