Happy New Year - to celebrate ... Champagne Charlie!!

Well, we had enough with walking in the dark on icy, snowy roads and waiting forever for the bus!!

On New Year's day, we decided to start the New Year the right way.... we went car shopping! After all, no presents for Christmas or Anniversary, was specifically for the ability to get a car when we needed one.

So, welcome to the family, Champagne Charlie. He is a Champagne gold coloured Honda CR-V, 9 years old, with a lovely leather interior (which helps keep those static shocks at bay!) He has tinted rear windows which should help in warmer weather to keep those black leather seats cool enough to actually SIT on..... which is also nice.

Purchasing our new family member was a bit of work, involving driving a rather large, 4WD stick shift Ford truck around, over the mountain to Sacramento..... and a VERY long day - we left at 10 am and got back at 9.30pm, with car. Although everything was completed by then, so we don't even need to go to the DMV to register the car!!

Geico was the insurance saviour, which allowed us to buy 6 months of insurance, which in California is a pricey thing to have to do.... and God Bless Carfax, which allowed me to look at all the various car options in our price range, to see what had been in accidents, and what had many owners, and how many miles the cars had been driven!!

Without going into more (boring) details, we found Charlie in a used car lot in Sacramento at about 4.45pm after a frustrating afternoon. We paid and had all the paperwork and headed back over the mountains, using I80 and crossing at Donner Pass.... leaving Sacramento at 6.30pm. Not too bad, considering they had 7 cars to choose from, although Charlie spoke to me the minute I saw him.

So - here he is in all his glory (using the dealers pictures.... he's dirty and embarrassed to be photographed since he arrived in South Lake.....)