"Daddy's car is perfect."

That was a direct quote from Carl today around 11:00 am.

Now, backup for the whole story.....

10:00 pm Tuesday, April 5th. About 45 seconds before the end of the auction, Lew bid on a Volvo he had been watching on ebay. You know Lew - he had researched this car. Knew the Blue Book value, the fair trade in price, the dealership's listing for it. He mulled over the photos and the mileage for days, thinking about how much he was willing to pay for her. She was very pretty and he was falling in love quickly. But, he is cheap frugal and he knew what he was willing to pay. So, when there were only 45 seconds left in the auction, he bid. We watched the remaining seconds tick down on the counter and held our breath.

0 seconds. You have won the item!

Lew was now the proud owner of a 2000 Volvo S70 with only 78,000 southern miles on her!! For you northerners who don't think about this much... southern miles +/or years... in this case, 12 years.... means there were not 12 long salt filled winters for this car. No rust from salt. None. Yeah - that is big when you like to buy a car and drive it for, oh, say 15 years. We drove the Volvo 240 for that long. She is 20 model years old. I will not go through the long laundry list of her problems right now, out of love and respect for her. I love that car! Always have. Always will.

But, the 240 came from Massachusetts. And lived in MA and NY with us for many years. Yes, she had a break and lived in NC for a couple years, but by then, the rust was already working on her. All the southern time did was fade her paint.

OK, he won the car. here's the picture that he first saw and fell for.Now, all he had to do was pay for it and pick it up. In........................ Ft Lauderdale, FL.

He called the owner, set up a Saturday morning meeting time, paid a deposit, had the title and bill of sale overnighted up to NC and made plans to pay the remainder by cashier's check.

Next step was to book a flight down there for Friday evening. And a hotel. Everything was working fine. The flight was only $150 after all taxes and fees and the hotel was about $60. Well within budget considering the nice price he won the car for.

So, on Friday, he headed to our DMV to un-register the 240 and register the S70 so he could bring the license plate down to FL with him for the drive back home. The dealership in FL wouldn't issue any kind of temporary plate for him. No problem. You can transfer plates quite easily. We just did it last December from the 850 to the Honda. That went as well as can be expected. His next stop was to be the credit union for the check. About halfway there, he stopped to grab some lunch at a drive-through and when he pulled back out onto the road, the 240 coughed. and died.

He rolled onto the college campus access road so he wasn't on the main road. Probably a good thing because if a cop had pulled up to help him and ran the plates... it was an unregistered vehicle. But, the AAA tow truck didn't do that. They towed him home very quickly. And for free. AAA membership has now paid for itself.So, we dropped him off at the airport Friday evening at about 4:30. He thought the hotel shuttle from the Ft Lauderdale airport stopped running at 10:00 pm and he was landing at 10:18 pm, so he figured he would need a taxi to get from the airport to the hotel, but turns out a shuttle pulled right up as he stepped out of the terminal. Perfect timing!

He did take a taxi from the hotel to the dealership on Saturday morning for $11. Not bad. Still, the car was a good deal and this was all fitting in. The seller even said he was disappointed at how low the auction ended. We were not disappointed in how little we had to pay for this car. Can't please all of the people all of the time, eh?

The dealer called the credit union to verify the cashier's check (due to some issue that they had with a deadbeat in the past) and once they got the OK, Lew was good to go. He left Ft Lauderdale at 10:30 am and headed back to NC.

He made great travel time. Got 28 mpg, too! He pulled back into home at 10:00 pm Saturday night only 30 hours after he left the night before. Everything worked out as well as it could have! He did run into those bad thunderstorms in NC and said they broke into his radio station with an emergency broadcast saying there was golf ball sized hail in the area, but thankfully... his new-to-him car was not pelted by any frozen anythings! We talked several times during his trip and each time, he was more excited and lovin' the new car!

The kids were still awake when he got home because, well, they wanted to see Daddy and the new car. And Cosby Show was on from 9:00 to 10:00 so we watched that together while waiting. They love it because I love it. Nothing wrong with that

Carl cried because he couldn't see the new car from the front door, so in the rain, we headed out into the garage so he could see it. He wanted to go for a ride in it right then and there. "Tomorrow, Buddy."

So, this morning after homemade waffles (I rock the waffle iron, you know) and reading the sale ads, we loaded up and headed to Target and Costco in Daddy's new car.

It is really nice! I mean, for a 12 year old car... it is really nice!!! The kids love the antenna... it goes up when the radio is on and down when you turn it off. If you are 5 years old, this is one of the coolest things ever!

Got some azaleas in the shot for y'all, too! Tis the season.As we drove out of the neighborhood, Carl announced, "Daddy's car is perfect!" Glad he approves!! So, I know many of you would never in a million years buy a car on ebay. Or get so excited over a 12 year old car. Heck, Lew's 19 year old nephew drives a '99 only one year older. But, for us, buying our cars this way means no car payment. We did take out a small one on the van and hate the idea of writing a check every single month for our car, even if it is a small one. So, this car is already paid for! And it comes with a great story, don't you think?