Just call them Mr. Mechanic

So last summer my Honda Civic of 12 years decided to go on the fritz and I wasn't willing to put the money in to fix it the way it needed to be so I decided to say adios and sell the sucker. Thankfully, God graciously provided a free car from Jack's family that had been through numerous family members before belonging to us. Jack's grandparents bought a 1989 Toyota Camry brank-spanking new and Jack even remembers riding around in it when he was 9 years old or so. After his grandparents "turned in their keys" so to speak Jack's dad inherited the car. After a few years Jack's sister inherited the car. Then in 2010 we inherited KenGen....oh, and did I mention it only had 89,000 miles on it...being 21 years old? :) Yep! After commuting back and forth to work for a few months Jack and I were able to drive it across the country for the big move to NM. By then it only had just over 100,000 miles on it. Wowsers. And yes, having such an old car with so little miles on it probably helped get me out of getting a speeding ticket in Texas on that lovely drive....:

(and excerpt from our cross country trip) After rounding one particular trailer I noticed a  cop driving in front of the big rig. I slowed down to 70 and passed the cop. Next thing I know blue lights are in my rearview side mirrors so I pulled over. As the policeman approached the car we saw him inspecting all the stuff crammed into the back of the car and as he came up to the window I smiled sweetly as he told me it appeared to him that I was going a little fast as I came out around the tractor trailer. Woops! He then proceeded to have quite an extensive conversation with Jack and me about the age of the car, the great condition it was in and was wondering where we were headed. We filled him in on our "story" and off he went to run my license. He came back with a warning and told us if we make it to Santa Fe then we deserve to be in a Toyota commercial. For those that don't know, we were driving a 1989 Toyota Camry with only 106,000 miles on it. The cop even asked us if the odometer had rolled over already. NOPE!! :)

Anyways, all that to say...the car was in need of a tune-up and thankfully we have a great friend here who loves working on cars so Jack and Dixon hung out 2 days that I had to work, jacked the car up, took off the tires and the axels and the boots and the hairclips err ok so I don't really know all that they did, but I do know that they sure made it sound like we were living in a mechanic's shop and when I went down they were covered in grease! Now the car rides smoothly, the breaks work great and the suspension is much tighter...no more hitting our heads on the ceiling when going over speed humps...or you know, not. :)

The car before leaving NC...tons of stuff packed in.

Somewhere in Texas filling up with gas and cleaning the windows. The suspension was getting a good workout.

Jack was a bit dirty that night

Working hard and making a big mess.

All jacked up