Daddy Caved

Pigs flew, hell froze over, the Cubs won the World Series, Michigan beat Ohio State, and we bought a freakin' minivan. Yeah, daddy caved. Kim finally talked me into it. It was a sad, sad day. I even remember one of my friends calling me while we are the dealership closing the deal. It was a turning point in my life really. I knew he was calling me to join him for happy hour with our cool, young, hip friends. Meanwhile, I'm getting ready to put pen to paper and officially drop cool, young, and hip from my reputation. I didn't even answer my phone. I was too embarrassed to explain to him what I was doing and why I wouldn't be making it to happy hour that night. We were purchasing a Honda Odyssey.

We traded in the Mazda Tribute and now I drive the Toyota Camry, which we call "Earl" because the letters on the license plate are "URL", and Kim drives "Katie", who got her name from her license plate who's letters are "XKT". So it's been a few weeks with the beast, as I like to call her. Katie's not all bad. I've sort of come to grips with it.

Katie is silver pearl metallic. She sports a sunroof and a spoiler adds to her sportiness. The dual sliding doors add a level of convenience that we've not had before. I have to admit...It's quite nice. Even though the van is bigger in size, it feels like we're saving space in our garage because we don't have doors that swing out when we have to put Camden in.

On the inside, gray leather was our interior of choice. Normally, we're not leather people, but we went with it on recommendation of others in order to combat the high likelihood of spillage in the vehicle. The nice thing with leather of course, are the heated driver and passenger seats. Almost a must in cold weather climates. The spacious interior has enough room for 8 passengers and there are about 55 cup holders spread throughout the vehicle. It is also equipped with a rear entertainment system and wireless headsets so that passengers in the back can listen to or watch something different than what the front passengers are listening to. Often times, you'll find Camden and me chillin' in our captain's chairs in the back watching a DVD while mommy chauffeurs us around. Actually, Camden sleeps. Daddy watches a DVD. It even has a video hookups in the back so we can bring our Wii or Playstation along on long trips. Not sure how the Wii will work in a moving vehicle, but we're bound to test it out I'm sure.

The rear seats fold flat into the floor which is a super convenient feature. Or at least people that have owned an older minivan tell me it's a convenient feature. I'll take their word for it.

How I Drive a Minivan....and Live with Myself