Breaking up is hard to do...

We have experienced a loss in the family... The loss of my Explorer. Sniff, sniff. It's still a fresh wound, so please...be gentle. Here's the story...

I drove a 2003 Ford Explorer. And I loved her with all.my.heart. And I mean that...

We bought her brand new in 2003. She had a 4.6 V8 engine (which meant she could haul ass & run over people). 0% financing through Ford for 72 months -which I also loved... We bought her to pull our boat & anything else we needed. At the time we had the Mustang & I don't even remember what other vehicle but we didn't have anything to 'pull' stuff. Plus it was going to be our nice 'family' car. Even though we don't really have any 'family' to put in it. Details, schmetails...

She came with all the bells & whistles. There were so many gadgets it made my heart sing. We do love our gadgets here at the Farming McAfee's. She had a moonroof, a DVD system built into the back, a 6-disc CD changer, heated seats, leather, 3rd row seating & all time, all wheel drive (which meant I could go just about anywhere!) just to name a few...

But ya know how sometimes when you love something, you know that it's bad for you to be together? When staying together is becoming detrimental to you both? That the best thing for the one you love is to let it go?! That's what has happened... Tear...

We bought B-rad's humungo truck a year & a half ago. It could pull a house over if he wanted it too so we had the 'pulling' stuff thing covered. Plus he enjoyed driving it so we used that for our 'non-family' car. The Explorer also had an addiction to gasoline. She couldn't help it. She needed it. She craved it. She only got 14 mpg when I drove to work & back (that's due in part to the fact that she used all 4 wheels to pull us around all.the.time. Plus that made her ride a little rough-not smooth like a car.) And on a good day, I'd get 18 mpg when I drove all over the tri-state area for official jewelry business. And really, lets be honest...none of us are getting any younger. She was 8 years old. She had 105,000 miles on her. She had started having some transmission or engine 'things' that I noticed from driving her everyday. They were sporadic problems so when I took her to the doctor they couldn't duplicate the problem. She has been good to us. Really-she was a good car. She only broke down on me one time (& boy was I pissed at her for that!)

So we'd been researching new vehicles on-line. (Have I mentioned I heart the internet?) I knew I'd still want an suv, but not such a big one-a 'cross-over' SUV. I didn't want to go back to a car. I like to be elevated a bit. Plus I wanted enough room to haul all my jewelry supplies (if I ever have a show again...) I really liked the looks of the Ford Edge, but since I'm spoiled & needed (wanted) all my gadgets, they were going to be pricey. Plus the fuel mileage wasn't that much better than what the Explorer had. But I'm always worried about money. Can we afford it? Do I want 2 car payments? B-rad also told me that I deserved a new car because I had worked so hard with the jewelry (obviously he was speaking about last year... sigh...).

We researched Kia's, Toyota's (dad's #1 vote...), Honda's, Fords, any company that manufactured cross-over suv's. Then one day, I thought, "Hhhhmmmm, I wonder what Chevy has?" Then I found the Equinox. Very tough looking, but more reasonably priced for all the gadgets & mpg I wanted. Now-I'm not 'loyal' to any car company. I won't buy a Ford just because it's a Ford. I will buy what I think looks good & pretty. Period.

We went to the Chevy dealership to look at the Equinox. I told B-rad 900 times, 'We're not buying a vehicle tonight...we're not buying a vehicle tonight!' But like they say, never say never... we bought a vehicle that night. We felt like we got a good deal, a fair amount for our trade (Gasp, I know...we traded the Explorer in...) & I told them where I wanted our payments to be & they got them there.

So we came home Thursday night to clean out my ole girl...

Ah, my super cute flower sticker from Florida. I've had this thing on my car since 2004 when I went to visit a friend in Florida. You can see it was starting to come off. But this was like my trademark. Everyone knew 'That's Jaime Mac!" when they saw the sticker.
And I don't know about ya'll, but I live in my car. I've got everything in there! (The cooler wasn't in there, I just sat stuff on it that I needed back in the new car right away...)CD's, DVD's, satellite radio wires, & jewelry stuff. I even had a blanket in there for the winter in case she broke down.Friday I went to the dealership to sign all the papers & pick up the new car. When I pulled in, I told the Explorer, "Bye Car (I loved her & all but I didn't name her or anything. Psssh, that's just weird)...I'm going to miss you..."

The guy sat with me in the new vehicle for like an hour going over the On-Star setup & showing me some of the basics on the car. The Explorer was sitting right there. Just waiting for me to get in & take her home. Sadly...she was not coming back home. I took this picture right before I pulled away. I sent it to B-rad & he said, "Are those tears or rain?" See-he knows me so well...And now instead of the garage looking like this...

It looks like this...

The inside is so sleek looking! It's got black leather with red pin-striping.

First things first, my personal techy had to get into all the settings & get it just the way I want it.

B-rad is super talented at stuff like this. He is an electronics guru. But even he had to get into the owners manual to check to see what some of the settings did. Oh the gadgets! Be still my heart.

So it's a 2011 Chevy Equinox. Cardinal red. 3.5 6 cylinder (or something like that...) Smaller engine than what I had-but that means less gas too! Here are my favoritest gadgety thingies so far on the new car:

#1-Back-up camera in the rear view mirror. Very cool but is gonna take a little getting used to!

#2-XM radio built INTO the radio. (I've always had Sirius, but I had the external thingie that we had to run a wire & antenna to.)

#3-Remote start. Oh yea baby-this thing will start & run for 10 minutes with the remote.
#4-the lift gate opens with the remote. Mmmmm hhhmmm, I have to do no, I repeat no manual labor to lift this bad boy. You push a button on the remote or the door & it lifts itself like magic! Here is B-rad setting how far it opens in the garage. I always yell at B-rad when we are out & I get to the vehicle & it's locked. I tell him everytime, "you know I want the doors unlocked when I reach the vehicle!" So last night I told him, "Not only will I want the doors unlocked when I get to this car, I want the engine running & liftgate open!" (if applicable, of course...)

And maybe you're wondering why B-rad would need to set how far it opens in the garage? Well, uhm er someone may have accidentally opened the garage door when she had the liftgate up on her Explorer (twice...) & put 2 horrible scratches on the back. That may or may NOT be why he was setting it. I'm not real sure...

Since B-rad didn't get to test drive this one, he was itching to drive. Plus I hadn't been to the grocery in like 2 months (unless you count 'grabbing' a few things at the Dollar Store grocery shopping...) so we decided to go to the grocery. Please notice how MY car is almost the same color as his truck. I didn't want red, I wanted like a silvery, granite, gray-ish color. But they didn't have one. Sigh. But B-rad was all about the red. So now we match! Yay. Eh-I didn't really like the Explorer's grey color when I got her...but I learned to love it.

Notice B-rad behind the wheel. That won't happen too often. I'm already giving him paybacks for him not wanting to let me drive his truck.

Our first grocery outing was successful. I was worried about the 'trunk' area holding all our stuff. But another cool feature is the back seat will slide forward if I need it to to make more trunk space. And of course the seats fold down too. But I figure if Lora can buy groceries for a family of 5 that includes 2 teenage boys in her car, surely I can fit groceries for 2 people in the back of this thing!

There's one more itty bitty problem. I haven't told my dad. Are you thinking that's weird? It is. Ya just gotta know my dad. Buying cars is his 'thing'. He loves it. He helped us buy the Explorer. But he wanted me to buy a Toyota this time. He's all about them right now. Dad is a bit of a control freak (I'm not like that at all...) & he will chastise me for what I paid for this car, how much they gave me for the trade & for buying a new car period. Yes, I'm 34 & 3/4 years old, have a husband, a house, a job & my own money, but my dad will still yell at me. While we were at the dealership I sat in the chair, hands to my face, rocking back & forth while saying, "Dad is going to kill me. Dad is going to kill me." When I called mom to tell her that night she said, "Well I'm not gonna tell your daddy. I'll let you do that." Gee, thanks mom...

But I have a plan. My aunt's birthday party is today. And if dad shows up (he's not really into family functions...) I will spring it on him then. There will be lotsa people (witnesses) -he can still yell at me, but not as much. And he can't kill me in front of the whole family...I don't think...?