Handling some Bumps in the Road

One who gains strength through overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.

~Albert Schweitzer

If everything went perfectly smoothly all the time, what would I learn?

I took my Jeep to the mechanic to make sure it was ready to pull a trailer from Cincinnati to Miami, and to be sure that it was "island rated." When I arrived to pick it up at the end of the work day, I knew it was bad news when the mechanic said, "I left it on the lift so that I could show you a few things."

Flashback: On the way to buy the Jeep, I said to Paul, "I'm not sure why, but something about this doesn't feel right to me. I don't have a good feeling about this."

What did the mechanic show me?...

...A whole lot of rust!

The frame was rusted. My mechanic recommended that we not drive it anymore...much less from Cincinnati to Miami with a trailer behind it. Sadly, this was not meant to be our island Jeep.

I took it to All-Terrain Outfitters in West Chester, Ohio, just to be sure the prognosis would be the same from "Jeep People." And it was. Jacob tapped a few times with his hammer, crawled around under it a little and told me that it would probably take close to $4000 to fix the damage.

All-Terrain Outfitters has all 5-Star ratings on their FaceBook page, and I couldn't agree more! Jacob offered to help me shop for a Jeep, and volunteered to go look at them with me, if I found something local (I clearly can't be trusted to pick a road-worthy Jeep, after all!). He also recommended that I look in Tennessee (or Georgia) for a Jeep...places where they don't salt the road each winter. My sister lives in Georgia, so this was definitely an option.

In planning for this move, everything is interwoven and there is so much that needs to be done in preparation for shipping a vehicle. I need to be sure the island car is ready to tow a trailer 1200 miles. I need to start getting insurance quotes, fill out paperwork for it to be shipped, etc. Less than two months before the move, and I'm back to step one with a vehicle.

I set aside all purging attempts and concentrated on finding the perfect island car. I knew I still wanted a Jeep, so I started searching the Craigslist sites in Tennessee and Georgia along the travel route to my sister's place in Woodstock, GA.

It didn't take long to find this ad:

I sent the information to Jacob (along with a couple other Jeeps) and he was quick to respond with: "The white one is a little more tempting to me. Seems to have a bit better value to it."

After several communications with the seller, my intuition said he was an honest, trustworthy guy. Even so, I felt a little "once bitten, twice shy" about buying another used Jeep. I expressed this to my sister, and she echoed my feelings (Wayne is the mechanic and Joseph is the seller):

With my sister in Georgia doing all the legwork, soon we had an appointment for the Jeep to get checked by a mechanic, money ready to purchase if all went well, and paperwork ready for signatures.

The next day, the white Jeep was in the air with Wayne the mechanic (from Atlanta Undercar Specialists) underneath. It turns out this Jeep is in great condition. And after several hours of running around, my sister pulled my new Jeep into her garage.

This Jeep is four years newer and is a 6 cylinder (the other was a 4 cylinder). So, even though there was a little stress involved in this last-minute discovery, I feel that we are better for it in the end.

I learned a lot about buying a used vehicle through this process...and we are more prepared now. It's always the bumps in the road--and learning how to overcome them--that makes you stronger!