Farewell, Bessie

Jim's beloved 1996 Ford Explorer, Bessie, had spark plug issues for some time. One spark plug regularly went out and had to be replaced. Then one day Jim took Bessie into the mechanic, thinking it was the spark plug again. Something more serious was going on, and the mechanic told Jim that Bessie had to be put down; she could last a year, or she could just stop at any moment. The only fix would be a new engine. Since Bessie's "check engine" light is always on, we were only hoping to squeeze one more year out of her, anyway, as we knew she couldn't pass the next smog check (at least not without the fancy maneuvering we did the last couple times to get her to pass).

We weren't excited about the prospect of her shutting down while we were driving her, so we hurriedly set about purchasing a replacement vehicle. Both Bessie and the Duchess (my Corolla) were way too small for us now, with two car seats. It was awful when Mamo and Pod were visiting and I had to make Mamo climb over Wren's car seat, squeeze between the girls, and get buckled in by Pod because her seat belt buckle was nearly inaccessible under/behind one of the car seats. Bessie was even tighter, and the two-door thing was ridiculous. Neither of our cars could carry even one extra car seat, so carpooling was out of the question. We researched crossover SUVs and minivans and ultimately went with a minivan because in addition to providing extra space, they get better gas mileage.

One afternoon, JoAnn kept the girls while we wasted a couple hours going to two dealerships in Poway (where Jim and an annoyingly pushy salesman got into a beef after the salesman kept trying to talk us into leasing or buying new) and then drove up to Costa Mesa. We ended up arriving at a Honda dealership just after 8:00 P.M., less than an hour before closing time. We had wanted to check out some Toyota Siennas, but the private dealership that had good options was already closed. So without further adieu, we bought a 2010 Odyssey with 66k+ miles on it. Jim was very anti paying extra for the fixings (including the power doors), but we were pretty excited by the bells and whistles on this one - power everything (including the trunk door), sun roof, rear camera, TV/DVD player. It's got leather seats and fancy air conditioning; you can set a temperature for the driver, a temperature for the passenger, and a temperature for the rear. There was a silver 2011 Odyssey available that didn't have all the extras, but we went with the dorky blue, pimped-out 2010. We bought it without ever seeing it in the light because we had to get 'er done that night. We couldn't leave JoAnn with the girls until after midnight and come home empty-handed!

Ever was very excited about getting a van with magic doors like the Karners'. Here she is during her first ride in Big Blue (as Susan Oddou named it):

This isn't Big Blue, but this is what she looks like from the outside:

Jim donated Bessie to KPBS. At 19 years old and over 220,000 miles (nobody knows how far she's gone because the odometer stopped working a while ago), Bessie served us well. She took us to Canada in the beginning of our courtship:

Thirteen years and two kids later, we bid her farewell. Ever posed for one last picture before Bessie was hauled away:

May she rest in peace.