Pre-Thanksgiving Adventure

With Bentley turning 16 and his driver's test all passed (YES!  HE PASSED!!!), we figured we were due to add a third car to the family.  I had always assumed we'd look for some beater and hope it would last for a few of the kids before one of them wrecked it, but Craig had bigger plans.  He figured it was time he got himself a truck, and then Bentley could drive the Honda.

I was fine with this plan until car prices shot up (along with everything else) and suddenly a truck was a lot further out of our price range than it had even been originally.  But we kept saving up (those two jobs I've been working have helped a lot there) and sat down to take a good hard look at our budget and try to figure out what we could make work.  And, of course, Craig spent HOURS combing through various websites looking at trucks and deciding what he wanted verses what we could actually afford.  (Pretty much any time he's been staring at his phone for the last year, it's a good bet he's looking at trucks.)

One popped up in his feed back in October that was a good price, but it was the weekend of the ward Halloween party and the truck was up in Pennsylvania.  Getting there and purchasing it would have taken the entire day, and we just couldn't abandon all our other activities to go buy it.  It sold before we could even contemplate getting to the dealership to see it.  And we were a little sad.  I told Craig that the next time a truck popped up that we wanted, we were going to GET IT.

He didn't think I actually meant it.

But I absolutely did.

So when he texted me a truck that he liked while I was at choir the Monday before Thanksgiving, I immediately texted back, "What's the plan?"  No response.

When I got home I asked again, "What are we going to do?"  Craig could only say, "I don't know..."  I kept pushing: "Do you actually want this truck?"  "Yeah?  But I have work tomorrow!"  The truck was five hours away, past Philadelphia.  So he had a point.  But still.  For someone who'd spent a year looking at trucks, he sure didn't seem very enthusiastic.  But I have learned.  In our marriage, Craig is the brakes, and I am the gas.  And that's a good thing-- you need both!  So I didn't stop there.  I pointed out that there was no youth activity the next night, so it was probably the best chance we'd have to go buy it.  It would certainly be gone by the time we got to Black Friday.  And it's so rare that we have a night with no plans.

After a lot of back and forth, we finally decided to go for it.  He texted his boss explaining the situation and his boss was really nice about it.  We barely slept a wink that night, and then got the kids up and mostly ready for the day and explained what was going on.  Bentley had to get Colton and Camille on the bus in the morning, because we were leaving before they did.  Knowing this was his ticket to having a car to drive, too, Bentley was very happy to help out.  Kendra was home sick anyway (just a cold, nothing too serious), so she'd be home to greet them in the afternoon.

We called the dealership when they opened at 9am to make sure the truck was still there and that it was priced right.  We arrived some time in the afternoon, already sore from so much driving, but spent an hour test driving it and looking it all over and then another hour or so filling out paperwork and trying to get money transferred by wire, since they wouldn't take an out-of-state check.  We also grabbed some food at Taco Bell while we were waiting.  Finally around 3:30 Craig suggested that I head home.  We were still waiting on the money, but even if I left immediately, I'd be home after the little kids had gone to bed.

I started driving in traffic with the sun in my eyes, the worst.  I was stressing about the wire transfer but there wasn't anything I could do.  Craig was calling banks and trying to get them to do their job.  I called sisters and parents to tell them the exciting news.  I called the kids and checked in on them and reminded Bentley to make dinner for everyone (he already was, good son that he is!).  Shortly after 5pm Craig called and said the money hadn't gone through and the bank was closed.  So the dealership finally just let him take the truck and leave anyway.  Phew!  What a relief!  So he was just a couple hours behind me on the road.  Which gave him ample time to test out his new truck.  And fall even more in love with it.

For people who care about this stuff, it's a 2017 Honda Ridgeline, Black edition.  For only a little bit out of our price range, it had a lot less miles than the other trucks Craig had been eyeing, so hopefully that was worth the extra money we spent...

It was very fun showing it to the kids the next morning!  Craig let them ride in the back while he drove them around the neighborhood.  And it was even more fun once Craig managed to fit it in the garage and hide it from his parents so we could surprise them with the news when they arrived later in the afternoon to help with pre-Thanksgiving pie making!

So we are now the proud owners of a truck.  We even got to make good use of it when we bought our Christmas tree on Saturday!  I'm sort of hoping now that the deed is done, we can go back to talking about things other than trucks?  But I sort of doubt it.  

Craig loves his truck so much.