On the Road Again

We finally have a second car! While we were living on base in our temporary lodging it wasn't such a big deal to be a one car family because we really could walk everywhere. The only trouble came when we all needed to go somewhere together. Six people in a car with five seats becomes challenging, not to mention illegal. But for a month and a half, we kept squeezing six people in the Camry until we felt we have found the right car. Four in the back seat all the way to York, all the way to Birmingham, and all the way to church every Sunday. We got quite good at double buckling and ignoring the squabbles that come from such close quarters.

We actually found and test drove the car we ended up buying in the beginning of November but we didn't have the cash on hand to buy it quite yet and we didn't want to settle for a different car or to finance this one. So we crossed our fingers and waited for another month before heading back to the dealer and buying it! I would check the dealer's website every few days just to see if "our car" was still there and I always felt so happy every time it was.  Because we know what we like and our van was so good to us, we bought another Kia. 

This isn't our exact car, but it looks remarkably similar! I like to think of it as a mini minivan.

This time though we didn't get a minivan but a Kia Carens which still seats seven but is much smaller than a minivan. I think in the states it's called a Kia Rondo? It's new-ish and has pretty low miles which I wanted. Plus it should be reliable enough to be our main car without any trouble for our entire time here. Jared really, really wanted whatever car we got to be diesel and standard transmission and it checked that box as well. Since it's mostly my car to drive, I've had to get used to driving a stick shift again AND to shifting gears with my left hand.  As a bonus, it has leather seats (so smooth!) and a backup sensor, which has become especially helpful to me as we back into our driveway and driving in reverse is my worst nightmare. 

The one big downside is that if we want any trunk space at all we have to fold the third row down. I think I could fit a couple of grocery bags back there with all seven of us in the car but that's about it. But, we have a roof rack and will soon have a cargo box to stick on top for the times when we need space for people as well as things. Having two cars is one of those things you don't really appreciate until you have to do without, and I'm so grateful to be a two car family once again.