So long, Mustang Sally...

We really haven't advertised it, but for the last 4 months or so, we have been trying to sell Mike's mustang. Yes, his beloved 1968 GT/CS Mustang of 18 years. He has had it a long time and has been working on it every once in awhile in his spare time. It is an awesome car, but Mike doesn't have a lot of time to work on it (we have had some parts for 6 years that hadn't made their way on yet), so he decided it was time to sell it. I am sure at a later date we will get another one...but for now it is with its new owner.

We could not have asked for a nicer couple to buy the car. Dave and Janis plan on sending updates of the car as it finishes getting restored. Dave came with his friend Jeff last week to look it over and spent 2 hours crawling through, around, and under the car to decide whether or not he wanted it. He fell in love and came over on Wednesday to show his wife the car. He had been looking for a mustang for 5 years that he wanted to buy and fix up. It is hard to express how cool these people are...just down to earth good people. They left after giving us a partial payment, got the paper work notarized the next day and picked it up (and all the parts) on Saturday.

Some may say we are crazy, but at this time in our lives it just felt like the right thing to do. Whenever Mike gets his next job it will get a little more crazy in his life and he will have even less time to spend on the car. It takes up a massive amount of space and is heavy to move when we need to go to our next location. Selling the car was a really hard thing to do, for both of us. Katie has fond "memories" of riding in car. The car hasn't been as mobile since Christian was born. In Idaho there was a registration nazi and she wouldn't register it unless Mike took off the dash and proved that the VIN numbers matched. Christian was actually glad to see it go, but I think he will eat his word in about, say, 9 years. The kids got pictures taken with Dad about a month before this when we thought we had another buyer for it. They each wanted to go around the block with dad on their own before it was gone.

Mike was really trying to be cheerful in the pictures. It is a happy/sad time.

Going around the block with Katie, listen to how good it sounds...

Christian was just a little bit excited about having the opportunity of going with his dad around the block.

The Car is Back...

Mike's beloved Mustang has returned home all pretty on the outside, but still "wrecked" (as observed by a seven year old) on the inside. Little by little, we will get it done. For now it is pretty exciting just the way it is. We are working on the next step of getting the new headliner and the old glass back in. Then there is the wonderful task of reassembling everything that we took off in the beginning. While the car was being painted, Mike was able to acquire some new wheels and tires for the car. For those that are interested in the details, they are 17 inch wheels and tires in the "Shelby" fashion.

Of course, getting the Mustang home was eventful. Mike called me one evening to tell me he needed me to meet him at the mustang shop that put the doors, hood and fenders back on. (There is a very high degree of difficulty to getting them on "straight", so we had professionals do that) Being in the middle of making dinner, I was obviously ready to drop everything and go. Mike tells me that I am sometimes a stickler for rules. You can imagine my stress when I realized he wanted me to follow him home because he had 1) no license plate because the part that holds it isn't back on yet and it was suspended anyway, 2) there is no glass in the front or back windshield, 3) there are no lights, anywhere, on the car (i.e., brake lights, not that that is important), and 4) It is not really a complete car at this point and it is loud and gets noticed.

Away from the shop we traveled after we convinced the kids that riding in the mustang, as is, without seats, was inadvisable. Keeping careful watch on the...traffic, yeah, only the traffic,...we got 4/5ths of the way home. Carefully, I moved over to get ready to turn left, expecting Mike to follow my lead behind him, when he continued to slow down and start to turn right into a parking lot. My first thought was that the car had something wrong with the newly rebuilt motor. But no, not that at all. In his haste to get his beautiful car home, he forgot to check the fuel gage. He ran out of gas. It was a good laugh, even though I was wondering when we were ever going to have dinner. Luckily our gas can for the lawn mower was relatively full so it was rectified fairly quickly. We got home without further incident. Getting the car done will take awhile, but it is the journey and mostly the outcome that I look forward too.