Goodbye Dear Car

Six and a half years ago I purchased my first grown up car. When I returned from my mission my parents surprised me with a Mini Cooper, it was so much fun, but after a year of speeding around my dad said I could either take up payments on the Mini Cooper or get my own car. As much as I loved the Mini I felt like I needed an adult car, a car I could drive for the next 15 years and fill with car seats and gold fish crumbs. Being single I wasn't about to get a mini-van, but I loved the look of the Nissan Altimas. My dad found me just what I wanted complete with a sun roof and seat warmers, it was in Oregon, but we didn't care we flew up and drove it home. This car has taken me all across the Western USA.
My first road trip in this car was actually with Kevin before we even dated. My friend Jenna and I were going to go visit our friend Lilo in Monterrey CA and also attend a wedding of a mission friend in Fresno. Since Kev was also a mission friend I invited him along. Jenna ended up flying home for a family emergency so it was going to be just Kevin and I on the way home and I was nervous, I didn't know him very well. We had a great time driving home seeing who could last the longest with the seat warmers on and the heat blasting, he told me stories about himself that weren't true, and we drove through a crazy blizzardy snow storm. As we drove I kept thinking that Kevin was just the kind of guy I wanted to marry. At this point I never thought Kevin would be interested in me, but I got home and broke up with my boyfriend anyways.
That summer we drove my car to 29 Palms, we hiked to the tops of giant rock formations in Joshua Tree. We Drove to Orange County and enjoyed the beach, Magic Mountain and the Newport Temple open house. We made several trips to Vegas and each road trip Kevin and I became better and better friends.
When we were in our flirting but not dating stages every weekend we would wash our cars together and have little water fights.
Once we started dating we took a few more road trips to Vegas. Once we were married we took the road trips continued. One trip to Vegas it was just Kevin's dad and me because Marv and I both worked so we met up with the rest of the family a day later. I had worked the night before until 4:00 am and so Marv offered to drive while I slept in the back seat. I woke up about 5 hours later and Marv told me he was so hot even though the air was blasting. I had accidentally turned his seat warmer on full blast and he had be blazing for hours! Ooops.
Since we have been married we have driven from Provo to Couer D'Alene ID, from Provo to Texas. A round trip from San Antonio to Provo for Christmas straight through no stopping each way. We went from San Antonio to Orange County, to Palo Alto. While in Palo Alto we went to San Fransisco, Montery, Napa, and Yosemite, that was while I was pregnant with Cooper. From Palo Alto we went to Vegas then to Provo and then back to San Antonio. We took a trip from San Antonio to Kansas City to see our friends Scooter and Jessica. And while in Texas we have visited Del Rio several times, Austin more times than I can count and we enjoyed a fun day at the Beach in Port Aransas.
We buckled Cooper into the backseat and brought him home from the hospital in that car. I road tripped to Mesa AZ with my friend Melissa and her daughter Lexi so that I could visit my grandma before she had heart surgery. On the way home Melissa and I got stuck in a terrible traffic jam and she kicked open a fence so we could detour and off road almost to Mexico just to get around the freeway accident.
Speaking of accidents. I got in my first accident in this car. I rear ended someone in a round about two days after Christmas as I was going to return Christmas gifts. I loved this car. It was comfortable. It had a huge trunk, one time two friends and I all climbed into the trunk and closed it, we told some stories then pulled the glow in the dark handles to pop the trunk and get out.
Despite all the good times the car did have some troubles, which is why I am reminiscing and gushing right now. About a year after getting the car the check engine light turned on. We took it in several times but they could never detect a problem. It was frustrating because I could never pass Utah safety inspections until I took the car in to be reset, then I had anywhere from a few hours to a few days to a few weeks before the light turned on again. Just before the move to Texas they discovered a small fissure along the top of the gas tank, but said it wouldn't cause problems and probably wasn't worth fixing, but it would keep our light on. Once in Texas we had some clutch problems but when we took it in they found no problem. When it got worse we took it in again and they found a problem in the slave drive but the man told us it was minor and if it was his car he wouldn't worry about it because it was expensive. Well last May my car started making bad noise, we took it in and they said it was burning through oil even though they changed the oil a month ago. We thought maybe they just forgot to put oil in so we watched it for a while. Sure enough it was burning through oil.
With a big road trip to Minnesota a week away we took the car into the dealership last Monday. The verdict, the catalytic converter needed replacing. The engine seals were basically ruined and the engine needed replacing. The slave driver was in terrible shape and needed replacing and there were a few other problems. Basically it was the beginning of the end and the value of the car had plummeted and not worth fixing and probably not safe to take to Minnesota. I was depressed. I was also angry and sad. It made me sad to think that Kevin's dumpy 94' Accord was in better shape than my car. Well a few stressful days later my car is traded in at full trade in value (shocking!) and we are in a beautiful NEW Hyundai Santa Fe.
Minnesota here we come!!