Of Florida and Suburbans

So. What in the world do the words Florida and Suburban even have in common?? I mean, truly. Have you ever used those two words in the same sentence??

Well. I have. More times that I can possibly count in the last 3 weeks. These are two of my current pet words.



 Vehicles occasionally need to be replaced. 

For some of us, this replacement doesn't happen very often.

We have been driving a trusty 1997 Dodge Caravan for the past 9 + years. This particular van has been an unusually good friend to us.  Faithful. Dependable. Steady.

There were a number of reasons that pushed us in the search for a new vehicle. One being that our family is bursting the seams of the Caravan and another being that Amos' work vehicle is hopelessly beyond repair.

Our thought was to buy a new family vehicle and keep the trusty van for Amos to use for work.

Thus the search began.

The next size van is a 12 passenger!!!!!!! (she shudders at the thought of backing one of those beasts into the driveway)


I never dreamed or even thought of owning an SUV, but my husband slowly and surely convinced me that maybe a Suburban would the perfect upgrade for our family at this particular time.

So began the search. Craig's list and Auto Trader became my bosom buddies for a while.

One fine evening I found what I thought seemed to be the perfect vehicle. It passed by husband's criteria : 9 passenger, 4 wheel drive, southern vehicle, within our price range.

I'll just skip a ton of details and say that within a week after numerous phone calls and research, we had purchased one way tickets to Florida with the hope of driving this Suburban home.

Because the tickets ended up being insanely cheap we decided to both make the trip and squeeze a tiny bit of vacation out of the ordeal.

I was over the top excited to think of a 48 hour vacation in February in FLORIDA. (*we actually spent a little less than 24 hours of our vacation in FL, the rest of was spent traveling)

Risky? yes!!!

Impulsive? maybe...

Crazy? probably...

Faith- filled? we hope!!!

Exciting? you bet!!!

The 24 hours in Florida were absolutely therapeutic for my sun starved soul and body.  I will never regret those few precious hours on the beach.

I'm pretty sure that heaven will include a good dose of this

And indeed we did come driving home in our new great white beast. Yes. It's beastly. I got broken in with the beast rather quickly since I had to drive it through a totally unfamiliar city so that we could return the rental car to the airport.  Then Amos was overcome with fatigue in the hills and curves of West Virginia. Yours truly took over the wheel. I felt certain that if I could handle the streets of Jacksonville, Florida and the mountains of West Virginia that surely I would be capable of navigating the beast in our small hometown.

I still occasionally grip the wheel and shut my eyes and hope for the best while gadding about town.

We're enjoying the extra space. We are trusting that the Lord has blessed us with another faithful vehicle.

 If you need your mobile home moved across town, let us know. The Suburban has a monster engine and a towing package.

Even though I'm not a fan of big rigs, I will have to admit that there is a feeling of power in driving one of the bigger vehicles on the road.

The kids call it our Monster Truck.

I don't think it would actually qualify as a monster truck, but I do feel like a Monster Mom when I'm driving it.

Go ahead and try butting into me you compact-energy-efficient car....you'll find out who is boss!

Signing off,

The Soccer Mom