Farewell to Oz

With all the snow that we've been getting, that thought that had only been in the back of our minds about needing to get a different car became more pressing.

Last Tuesday night through Wednesday morning we got about 5 inches of the evil white stuff and when I opened the front door to leave, there was a layer of snow from our front door all the way across the street to the neighbor's front door.

No grass
No sidewalks
and more importantly... no ROADS!!!

I took a chance and started off down the road trying to follow the tire tracks in the snow from other cars that had driven down the street. I made the first turn about a block down the road and started up the slight incline of the road and then lost all traction and began sliding sideways. Luckily the brakes worked and kept me from sliding off into the ditch on the side of the road, but hitting the gas did nothing. As luck would have it, there was a street that I had passed so I slowly coasted backwards and was able to turn around and coast back home.

Seeing as though people told me later that day at work that we hadn't seen anything yet and the real snowfall would start in January we decided that the time had come to seriously start looking for something for me that would work in the snow. Yesterday we went to the Fred Martin car dealership in Barberton and after the typical battle back and forth with the salesguy over the price and terms, I had a new vehicle... a 2006 Ford Explorer 4X4.

I'm really happy to have something now that will have no problem driving in the snow, but a little sad at the same time to have to have gotten rid of the 350Z ("Oz"). I guess at least now I'll be able to get to work when it snows. :-)

Oz right before we left for Fred Martin (notice the pouring rain)

Our new 2006 Ford Explorer 4X4