Bobbis.net

Friday night, August 26th, my Taurus finally kicked the bucket at I-235 and 19th st in Des Moines. In the last couple years it has been in the shop for numerous cooling system repairs. One of the coolant hoses ruptured and my engine over heated. We had to get an after-hours tow and get a ride back home form my dad who was coincidently in town. Also, many tanks to Gaila's aunt and uncle for entertaining us for the evening.

The shop in Des Moines fixed the ruptured hose and found because of the overheating I had blown the head gasket. A repair that would take over 10 hours of labor, pushing the repair cost to over the value of the working car. I ended up striping the after market audio system and junking the car for $250.

I've driven this car since my leaner's permit back in 1998 and only about 40,000 miles on it. Since then I put it through 100,000 miles of use. As recently as the summer of 2009 I drove it 1,000 miles out to my brother's wedding in Penn Yan, NY. It has been to Kansas City, Chicago, St. Louis and an infinite number of places in between. Almost every other weekend in the fall 2004 I drove it to Yankton, SD through the winding roads of the loess hills to spend time with my future wife. The best way to identify the car was the trailer hitch that was used more for bruising shins than for hauling the fold down camper. The best picture of the Taurus I could find was when a deer ran into it.

Last Saturday I bought a new (to me) car. A 2006 Kia Spectra with only 45,000 miles on it. I still need to get an antenna and cruse control installed as part of the deal. Then I need to figure out how to install auxiliary audio so I can play my podcasts from my iPhone on my commute.

I hope to run this one for at least another 100,000 miles and more than 15 years.