Josh and Erin in the Twin Cities

Got home Saturday night with the new car, it was quite the trip.

For those that don't know, last week I traveled to a small town in Virginia to buy an 08 Subaru Impreza WRX STi. I flew out to DC on the earliest flight available, leaving here at 6 and arriving in DC at 1. I then had to rent a car and drive it from DC to Waynesboro, VA. Everything was going smoothly until I hit traffic in the middle of nowhere Virginia, I sat still for almost 30 minutes before traffic started moving again, and there was no discernible reason why traffic was so backed up.

Anyway, I got to the Waynesboro DMV at 4:27, they take their last customer at 4:30. I got my Transit Permit from the DMV and headed on over to the bank. Here is where I get to see the car for the first time. I give it a quick once-over and take it for a spin around the parking lot to make certain that everything works and there are no grinding noises or anything like that. Everything works flawlessly, so I tell the banker lady that we have a deal. We go inside, sign the paperwork, and viola! We're done, I own a car and they don't.



Now I have the small problem of having to return the rental car to the nearest AVIS location, a small regional airport 30 minutes away, and then getting back to the bank to pick up the car. Getting to the airport was a cinch, and after waiting for 45 minutes, I picked up the 'shuttle' and went back to the car. First stop, Target. I needed to get some snack food for the road and also a car charger for the iPod and iPhone. I also used this as an opportunity to clean out all of the crap that the previous owner had left in the car. Gas'd her up, chucked a burger down my throat, and I was on the road at 9PM eastern time, headed west.

This is where I wished I had decided to stay in Waynesboro on Thursday night. I was really looking forward to driving through the mountains and the scenery, but I went through it at the dead of night and saw nothing. Bummer. I made it all the way to Charleston, WV before I had to pull over and get some sleep. I stopped in a Motel 6 that had to be the worst hotel I had ever stayed in. I asked for a non-smoking room, and I guess to them that means that I would not be smoking in it. It smelled like the Great American Smoke Out had taken place 20 minutes prior to my arrival in my room. Ick.



I woke up to a light dusting of snow at 7 and after a quick (very cold) shower, got back on the road. The plan was to cruise up to Dan and Mary's place and crash for the night and then take the home stretch on Saturday. I still had all of WV, OH, and most of IN to deal with though, and they had just been hit the day prior with 12 inches of snow. I've got AWD, no problem right? Well, not really. I have AWD, but I also have summer sport tires on the car, and there is a reason they say they are for the summer and not for snow, it's because they suck in the snow. I might as well been driving on slicks in wet grass for as much traction as I was able to get. It wasn't so bad for me though, I came around a bend in southern Ohio and came upon a dude in a minivan perpendicular to the flow of traffic, going 50 MPH with the flow of traffic. Needless to say, that guy was having a 'situation brown' moment. I didn't get nearly that sideways, but I did have the back end hanging out a bit on the ice. Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful drive on the way to Valpo, not much happening except the car getting absolutely disgusting from the snow and salt.




As you can see, the car was nasty. Both of those pictures were taken in Dayton, OH with my iPhone. By the time I reached Indiana, the side windows were so caked with salt that I had to stop and clean them so that I could continue to use them.

There was actually so much salt on the car that when I went to leave Dan and Mary's on Saturday morning, the car was actually wet. It had dropped the freezing point of the water to a point where it was not freezing at 11 degrees.

That brings me to Dan & Mary's house. So let me first tell you how I was greeted at the door. Hayden and Lauren came to open the door for me, and as soon as I walk in, Lauren starts talking to me in a form that I cannot understand. Hayden looks at me, totally deadpan, and says, "she's a little crazy". I about lost it. So, I got to hang out with Dan & Mary and the kids, have dinner at one of Dan's favorite places, and then had pull-aparts in the morning with everyone. Instead of waiting around until the soccer games started, I got on the road pretty much as soon as breakfast was over, after Dan had taken the car for a spin around his snow and ice covered neighborhood.

The last leg of the drive was extremely uneventful, I mean, to the point where it was EXTREMELY boring. On the plus side, when I filled up for the last time it was the last of my cash and I was close enough that I could make it on the remnants of the gas in the tank. As it was, I made it here with a 1/4 tank.

I spent Sautrday night cleaning the car, inside and out to exorcise the previous owner and all of his grass clippings. Once that was done I could actually see the paint and how much damage it had sustained over the previous year of its life. I spent Sunday morning polishing all of the oxidation off of it and giving it a nice UV barrier so that it would not get nasty like that again.

Then, after all of that, 8 hours of cleaning and polishing, E wanted to go to the mall to get a swimsuit for Hawaii. Since it was around 45 degrees outside, all of the snow was melting and the roads had rivers flowing across them. Needless to say, by the time we got to the mall, the car needed another bath. Oh well, this will give me a chance to get rid of more of the salt that was caked onto the car in all of the crevices that I cannot get into with a towel.