Yes I Did It Again

There were only a few readers that caught on that there might have been a recent car transaction. Then, some more asking questions by making comments on the blog or emailing me. I decided it was time to explain.

This is not to make fun of any kind of addicts because addiction is a serious and terrible thing ... but I do see myself standing in a room with a bunch of strangers, raising my hand and stating ... "Hi my name is Steve and I am a car addict". For you long time readers there are no surprises here in this post but possibly a lot of laughter from the location you sit.

New readers, yes ... I have bought and traded a lot of cars, trucks, an RV, during the life of this blog in the last 6 years. I can't say I'm an addict really, it just took me this long to finally decide what two cars I like and the two cars I plan on keeping a long time.

Yes I justified everything back in late October when I explained here, the reasons I unexpectedly traded my Voodoo Blue 2007 FJ. I never planned to. Out of everything I said to justify it it basically boiled down to me not wanting to put $3,000 into a almost 10 year old vehicle that had close to a 150,000 miles, to replace the bad catalytic converters. That was the quote from a Toyota dealership where I made the trade.

I knew that day I drove off the Toyota lot with another 2007 Black Cherry FJ that I had made a mistake. It didn't ride the same, didn't feel the same and even within those first few miles I knew I would not keep it. I tried for the next month and a half to talk myself into agreeing it was a good decision.

By the time I returned home after the 75 mile drive I was out of shock and realized I should have kept the Voodoo Blue one with the needed repairs ... I could have looked locally for a repair shop that could give me a better price for making the repairs. Yet, when that Toyota service rep handed me the computerized estimate, I went into deep shell shock' that influenced my bad ... bad ... decision.

Besides the hail damage I did not see on top of the Black Cherry FJ when I inspected it before I bought it, it had a fairly good gouge in one of the hard plastic fenders. Normal wear and tear in different parts ... but those kind of scratches and dents bug the crap out of me. Like I said before, it just didn't ride like my other FJ. Plus the more I looked at it the less I liked the color. This was Black Cherry and the one I confused it with was the model they offer in Red Brick.

Maybe it was the weather turning cold in early December that made my brains cells go into overdrive on a brand new idea. I explained my thought process back then with a blog post, that you can read here if interested. I never drive my Z4 in cold or bad weather. It's a 'good weather' car where I can put the top down. So the month of December is a time I sometimes think of selling it more than driving it.

I had another brain failure when I decided I was pretty sure that I'd list the Z4 for sale on the Z4 forum, and Craig's List but not expecting it to sell until spring. At that time I'd park it down by the mailbox so those in heavy daily highway traffic could see it was for sale. I've never had a car last more than two weeks when I park them by the highway with a for sale sign on them.

That is when I came up with the idea of 'one car', 'one insurance policy', 'only one to maintain' blah blah blah ... the Mini Cooper Countryman S All4 would give me a small SUV and a Sports Car Mode. This thing would haul ass down the freeway at 85 and 90mph. There were only three problems with the car and none of them were maintenance issues ... it was a great car.

Those were:

1. I drove it more as a sports car because of how it drove ... I couldn't keep my foot from being buried into the accelerator almost every time I drove it. Luckily I never got a ticket.
2. Sadie and Stella were always looking to ride. This missed those rides in the FJ ... problem was they were a little cramped to ride at the same time. There's Stella checking for a way inside.
3. I have pretty much decided on a trailer I am going to buy and would feel much better towing it with an FJ and not the Mini Cooper S Countryman.

I had enough doubt about trading for the Mini Cooper. After I sat with the salesman for most of the afternoon, I changed my mind and drove home with my FJ. By the time I traveled the 12 miles home he called me wanting me to come back and make the trade. He sweetened his offer a little bit for it to happen.

Add in the other factor, that EVERY time I take this 14 yr old jewel out on the highway I hear myself saying "there is NO WAY I am ever trading or selling this car" !!!! It runs like it's new and has a little over 62,000 miles. My spreadsheet tells me I drive it 1,500 - 1,700 per year.

Once I was sure that I was keeping the Z4, then there was no need to have TWO cars giving me that sports car feel, I knew I'd be trading the Mini Cooper S in for an FJ. After all ... the Toyota FJ was THE BEST car I've ever had and I have had a ton of them over the past 17 years for some reason.

Then a few months ago I started sorting out in my head, old options I had analyzed and blogged about on this blog years ago ... what to travel in, RV or trailer, or what to tow, etc. Out of all the options I looked at, I have always come back to the FJ towing either a small trailer or a converted cargo trailer.

How I missed seeing this trailer last year is beyond me but once I found it I had to research it. It's my new plan but not until my hounds pass on. I've explained in previous posts that I find it too hard to travel with three hounds and only two hands. Plus now I have not one but two big strong bloodhounds so that is beyond what you can imagine, trying to travel with.

From reading on the Mini Countryman forums, there were those towing boats, small trailers with the Mini but I just didn't feel comfortably putting stress on a transmission of that car towing something even as small as this trailer. Plus .... I needed more room inside.

So here is what I am planning to buy for traveling and to use the FJ as the tow vehicle. Taxa Trailers in Houston Texas. These photos are from their website, not mine nor someone's personal pictures.

But really this isn't a new thought that just happened this summer. From that day back in October I bookmarked the site at Car.com, showing me all the 2007 FJ's for sale within 100 miles of my zip code. I would check that site every night if not multiple times every day. I knew I needed the same options as the Voodoo Blue had. I knew I'd eventually find one on my terms.

I even tried to buy my old Blue one back in early January. Their price had dropped below what they gave me as a trade in. Everything had been fixed and it looked good as new on their sales lot. It might have been anger, or they just wanted to play games with me ... or maybe they thought I was an idiot just passing through ... but they didn't want to sell it to me.

They gave me an extremely low offer for the Mini Cooper as a trade in. Then when I thought I had a deal almost done the 3rd week of January, they told me a price over the phone that was $2,000 higher than I was looking at online. I decided then the games were over and I'd find something.

I mentioned once in a blog post recently that I had expanded my FJ search out 250 miles from my zip code, then 500 ... "Only to Look" if I remember correctly. I was really looking for one that had the same options as I had before. There were not many of them even in a 500 mile radius. Plus I only wanted one in Voodoo Blue or Silver. I finally located one 106 miles away but it didn't have a roof rack, so I passed on it a month or so ago. It had everything else I wanted though.

Mileage wasn't a big thing for me. I bought my last one with 130,000 miles on it. I've seen these have over 200,000 and still going strong. It was also good to see on the Carfax it had only one owner. The father gave this FJ to his daughter for college when he was finished with it, so it was never driven off paved roads, most likely had never been rock climbing and the pictures showed very little wear and tear.

It might seem trivial but I wanted  this model of radio, not the black one that many of the 2007's have.

These 5 buttons showed me quickly I had a lot of the same features my old one had. We were off to a good start as I scrolled through the pictures. Again, no scruffs or scratches in the normal places.

It looked so clean and not scuffed up in back that I had to download this photo to my computer so I could enlarge it for a closer look. It looked even better in person. No normal wear and tear in the back. Yes it had the large sub woofer, not a deal breaker but just like my other FJ.

New floor mats throughout ... no scratches or gouges on the back door. I also didn't see any signs of rust around those 5 screws above, my old one had rust on them.

It looked brand new inside on their sales ad and also in person ... I don't know if the backseats have ever been used.

I knew since I bought this one at a Toyota Dealership that it had gone through their service department where any repairs or upgrades were done before it was put on the lot for sale.

Seeing these same wheels heavily chipped and worn on the Black Cherry FJ, I read on the FJ forums it was common for that to happen on their stock wheels. These wheels are brand new.

The sales rep told me on the phone that he had the rock rails taken off, sanded and painted. He also had his shop repaint these silver parts of the bumpers. That is a black fly in the picture, not a chip.

I did not find any wear and tear on the body itself. All of the plastic bumpers and fender guards are in perfect condition. The only dent I found was a small round one above the driver side door handle. It did not have two options my other FJ's had, the tow package and a roof rack. It did have the extra skid plates.

Instead they had added a Reece Tow package to the car, rated for 5,000 pounds, same as the FJ. Using the roof rack on my other one in June 2015, I decided then that I might like a rack by Baja much better. It is more rectangular and still uses the same factory mounts. If not I can have or I can install a factory roof rack.

The girl from college added her own touch to the FJ by adding a spare tire cover with a color that matched the car. That is going up for sale on Craig's List if anyone is interested or knows of someone with a Voodoo Blue FJ that would like one.

I had not been in the driveway more than 5 minutes before Stella was leaving bloodhound drool on the back bumper and near the doors ... her way of looking for a way to get inside and ride. Over the past two weeks of ownership, every time I open the back door to get something out or put something inside the FJ ... Stella gives a quick glance to see if we are going for a ride anywhere. It's been too hot lately to take them anywhere and I'd never stop with them inside the car in this type of weather. Our local drives are always to and from the house with the AC on if it's too hot.

Finally this past Saturday the temps had not reached 80° and there was a strong breeze to keep things cool. I told Sadie "let's go for a ride" and she went nuts. She never barks but she did then and didn't stop. She was in back of the FJ almost before I could get the door completely open.

That is when I found out that Stella's hips are definitely bothering her. She wanted in the back but couldn't jump in the back like she use to do before. She put her front paws on the bumper and I lifted her in.

Heidi took her co-pilot seat up front, windows down and she was ready to ride.

To say the hounds were happy to go for a ride again is an understatement.

So, lesson learned. No matter what comes up with either car, I will keep it and fix it. I was curious to see what the final cost was to me. I hated to look but had to put some numbers down on paper. You guessed it ... Since trading the FJ in October I have spent more than the $3,000 it would have cost me to fix the first FJ.

I never planned on trading that car until it broke. I'll not trade this one. The Toyota FJ is the best vehicle I have own, plus that Z4 that is driven only in good weather. I forgot to mention they gave me more for the trade in value of the Mini Cooper than what I paid for it in December. I also paid $500 less for this FJ with the same miles as my first one I bought in May 2014.

Also you might have noticed I never changed the truck plate when I traded for the Mini. It was allowed to be used on the Mini because BMV classified it as a 'wagon' but I was pretty sure I'd be using that plate again on a different FJ ... a lot of readers probably did also.  LOL

If you read this far you are to be commended. For the first time since I traded for my first FJ in May 2014 I have not had on iota of buyers remorse about this latest car deal. Things feel back to normal with an FJ back in the driveway.

NEVER a dull moment here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... LOL

A Surprise In Editing Photos

This morning definitely looked better than it did yesterday just after lunch. There was no rain forecasted yesterday for the afternoon and for the next three days.

I took this next picture just a little before 1:00pm yesterday. At the time I had no idea it would be nice enough to take the Z4 out for a drive only two hours later. It was nice to pull off the car cover, warm it up and head down the highway, even with the top up.

It was the normal routine this morning but Sadie was more than excited when I asked if she wanted to go for a walk. Her favorite place over by the burn pile was no longer her focus. She heard the word 'walk' and was ready and so was Stella.

No jacket today, cool breeze and a blue sky. It's hard to believe we are suppose to get snow on Saturday. It will not matter because by that time I will have started watching all of the college basketball conference tournaments on tv. I will not catch all of them but a lot of them. So it can do whatever it wants outside this weekend.

From the start of today's walk Stella seemed pretty interested in following the path of Sadie. Notice her black tail? Her mom was a 'black and tan' bloodhound. Since that black is only on the lower half of her tail, it was the reason her original owner named her "dipstick".

Sadie was in her element with excitement and another walk. How many of these walks has she been on in 8-1/2 years? How many times has she hopped up and down before every one of those walks? She never grows tired of them.

As I turned the first corner and prepared to take Stella's picture I was kinda surprised that she was this close to us. She was right on schedule. That's rare for her.

That is until Sadie saw a bird on the ground up ahead. If you look closely straight ahead of Sadie, near the bush line, you can see a bird just getting airborne. Sadie has never caught a bird, or a falling leaf or even a deer ... but anyone of those three things will set her off in a high speed sprint.

Of course if something is that interesting to sprint after it, then Stella has to catch Sadie and find out what all the excitement is about. By that time the bird was long gone. Still the hounds thought it must be around here somewhere and they continued searching the airstrip of the bird.

I was not quite to the back edge of the field when they each started trotting in different directions. Were they going to get away from me? Sadie had found something in the center of the field.

Stella had thoughts of heading to the 'no fly zone' ... or was it something she smelled in the air?

I think I found the reason for each of them to not bother exploring the back edge of the field. Just as I made the final turn home on the path, I see this. I am not a hunter but if I am not mistaken that looks like a deer hoof print to me and it's pretty recent.

Without saying a word, Stella decided it wasn't what she wanted to do, heading to the 'no fly zone', she had something else on her mind today.

Yet, she had to pace herself. The slower she walks the longer the walk will last. It is a nice morning out so why not enjoy it for as long as possible?

Following the path on a wet and saturated path ... I see two more of what I think are deer hoof prints, while they were running.

Neither bloodhound showed any interest in the prints I had found. They were on their own path, at their own pace. Neither ran out of their invisible boundaries.

Like I said, you can't run all the time because the slower you walk the longer the walk will be. This is a sequence of Stella's final path back to the house.

I mentioned earlier I took the Z4 out for a drive yesterday. Too cool for the top down but it's still a fun car to drive. I decided to take it out to the freeway and head to Bloomington. I wanted to have my friend look at a couple of things I found after washing the car last fall and see what he suggested. I tried to keep it 5 mph over the speed limit but there were times when on long stretches of highway where I could see no cops were up ahead, I accelerated a little bit more.  :)

As soon as I got home from that trip I grabbed the 25' retractable leash. I wanted to walk the hounds for their second time yesterday but I was in a hurry to go downtown for dinner at the Chinese buffet. All you can eat for $8.

I had just let the dogs out when I returned home from dinner and saw one of the best sunsets I had seen in a while. The pictures do not do the sunset justice. It was a lot more beautiful than I could capture with my camera.

I was only going to include this middle picture in today's post. It wasn't until this morning when I was editing all of these pictures I had downloaded from my camera, when I saw two deer in the picture above and only one of them in the second picture below. I was totally focused on trying to take a picture of the clouds.

The hounds were outside but didn't smell or hear the deer across that highway. In all of the years I have lived here, I have had hounds stand up here on the hill and stare back at the deer that are staring at them ... but fortunately I've never had a hound take off running across the highway to chase the deer in that field. When I see deer over there I am either putting the hounds back inside or grabbing their collars if I see they have noticed deer across the highway.

There was the time last year when the hounds and I were outside late, when I see a deer running across the highway toward the neighbors yard ... followed by at least ten more. You could hear the thundering herd as they broke tree limbs while sprinting into the woods south of my burn pile.

The hounds never noticed. They squatted, they peed and returned to the house in the dark like nothing was going on.

With the sunshine out today, I'll take the Z4 out in a different direction. Still not warm enough for putting the top down. It's a nice change of pace just to cruise over the hills and through the trees. It isn't much further west where the land is all flat, few tries and all farmland.

Sadie and Stella have decided they have waited long enough for me to finish this blog post. It is well past their lunch time kibble. Stella is howling ... Heidi is barking ... Sadie is hopping up and down.

It's time to eat!!!

Retirement is pretty good right now in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.