A New Honda

After finding out about the exciting news of Cameron‘s summer internship, Doug, Cameron and I started talking about what the summer would look like for him in Toledo. We were thrilled to find out that Owens Corning would be paying his housing expenses. That eliminated one concern right away. The second concern, however, was about transportation. It was awesome that they would pay his travel expenses to Toledo, but Doug and I wanted to make sure that Cameron had a reliable car that would drive from Bloomington to Toledo and to the other places that Cameron would want to go to this summer. The van has been awesome, but with 237,000 miles it has become more of a drive around town kind of vehicle. Doug suggested that we give Cameron the Pilot and that we look for a new car for me. I definitely like that idea a lot and knew that even though the green Pilot had 200,000 miles on it, it was still way more reliable than the van for long distance driving.

Once we decided that Cameron would get my car, we then needed to figure out how and when we would get it to him. He didn’t really need it right away, so we talked about bringing it up in spring. We didn’t have any travel dates set but figured we could come up with a plan after the holidays. We offered our van to my dad to replace his van since he only drives the Dodge around town anyway. He and my mom didn’t think they really needed it. That that’s when Doug suggested that we give it to Karen. It was an awesome idea and I wish I would’ve thought of that first. She was driving a 1999 Chevy Impala that had no air conditioning and needed pliers to close the driver’s side door. Brett didn’t seem to mind dealing with those issues, but Karen really wanted something different once they paid off her college loan. I texted her and Brett right away to ask them what they thought about the Odyssey. Karen was over the moon excited. I was really glad to hear that. I love that van and I know Cameron does too, so we were both happy that it was going to a good home.

Since Karen could use a new vehicle sooner rather than later, Doug and I decided it was time to go ahead and buy a new car for me. For the last year I had said that I really wanted to get another Odyssey. That changed, however when I drove one as a rental in September. It was way too low to the ground and the technology in it seemed dated for the age of the car. Last month, we drove a Hyundai Palisades and that made me realize that I really wanted another SUV. Nick suggested a Honda passport, but I wanted something that we could fit eight people in for when the whole family is here to visit. Thus, a new pilot seemed in order.

Last week, Doug and I went to Honda of Ocala for a test drive. We had wanted to go back to Gainesville as we loved our sales person there, but he had since retired. We met the perfect sales person for us in Ocala. He was our age, knew exactly what I meant about a car that was too low and was able to show us all the bells and whistles on the new Pilot. He didn’t try to upsell us or push us into buying something that we really didn’t want. The test drive went really well and Doug and I decided to purchase one. It took a little while to come up with the correct price, set up the financing and get insurance before we could drive it off the lot, but last Thursday night, I became a proud owner of a 2025 obsidian blue pearl Honda Pilot. I absolutely love it.  I am also excited that this weekend we will be able to drive the green Pilot up to Cameron and transfer the Odyssey to Brett and Karen. I have never had anything this nice to drive in my life, and I really appreciate Doug for making all of this work for our family.