I drove Katie to school one morning at 7:15 am. I dropped her off and was headed home when the car died in the middle of California morning traffic. A nice man in a jeep pulled over and pushed my car in neutral out of the middle of the street into a near by car wash. I talked to the owner and got permission to leave the car until it could be towed later. I removed the boys and walked about 2 blocks to a friend's house. We knocked but no one answered. Granted it was 7:30 in the morning and they did have a new baby so I wasn't surprised when there was no response.
Luckily Rick was working nights and on his way home from work. The boys and I sat on the curb near my friend's house for about 20 mins until Rick picked us up. We drove back to the car and tried to get it to start. No such luck. We removed all valuables from the car and drove home. We ended up towing the car home because it would start but the second you put it in gear the car would die. Rick gave up a lot of sleep to rescue me.
Down one car meant that I would have to drive Rick's car while he rode his motorcycle to work. Which his car is a standard, something I am less than comfortable with driving. I had killed his truck so many times in TN I had some serious anxiety over the whole thing. Knowing this, my sweet hubby took me like a 16 year old new driver to practice in a church parking lot. Honestly driving wasn't that worrisome. I was only really scared about rolling backward on a hill with another car close behind me. Once we practiced a few times I was good to go.
After a few weeks it was like second nature to drive his car. All I have to say is don't have the novice stick shift driver start in a large truck.
Rick I guess wanted his car back because the first weekend he had off we went car shopping. We bought a Chevy Traverse. It was about time we got a bigger vehicle with 3 kids.
We purchased the car $5,000 under asking price and for less than blue book value. I think we did alright. Plus it came with a warranty. Not too shabby for a used car.
