Marion provided a warm welcome, although she was hobbling around. Earlier that day, she had wrenched her left knee badly.At least the timing of the accident was felicitous, because I was able to drive Marion to the doctor Tuesday morning – something she could not do because her 15 year-old Saturn is a stick shift. Marion was particularly frustrated because she could have driven herself in an automatic car; she had wanted to replace her Saturn with an auto shift vehicle for a couple of years, but just never got around to it.
After x-rays, examination, etc., we went to Borders and made a list of about seven inexpensive new economy cars with automatic transmissions. Marion and I then eyeballed six of the cars at dealerships, and Marion test-drove four of them.
We stopped at Starbucks to collect ourselves after the last test-drive, and Marion (collecting herself, left) concluded that she liked the Honda Civic she drove best. In fact, she said she was particularly fond of the white one, with a fawn interior, that we test drove.
One phone call, a return trip to the dealer, and about 45 minutes of negotiation later, Marion was the proud parent of the white Civic she’d driven earlier in the day (upper picture). Not only is it a very nice car, but it does things I discovered her Saturn (lower picture) doesn’t do any longer, like steer, break, and illuminate the road ahead when the headlamps are on.
Congratulations, Marion!
In addition to all the car excitement, Marion and I had a great chance just to visit. I had not been to her place in Eau Claire since at least 2000, and it was nice to get back.
P.S. After we concluded the deal, the business manager at the Honda store asked if I was from the West Coast. He told us no one with my shoes could have been from Wisconsin or Minnesota. Eh? What do you think?
1 comment:
I think those red shoes are exactly what the Mid-West was lacking unti you arrived!!! Keep writing, I am loving your trip!
Post a Comment