saying (an almost tearful) good-bye

Over New Year's we had to take a drive up to Chicago to exchange some furniture. Since we could haul furniture and kids at the same time we drove both cars. Sadly, the combination of round-trip miles and below freezing temps caused Johannes' Jeep to throw a rod 60 miles from home. We had it towed to our mechanic and he was nice enough to let us store the Jeep at his place until we could figure out what to do. After learning it would cost $4000 to repair a car that cost us $1200 Johannes eventually came to grips with the fact that his man-Jeep was not going to survive the cut, and had to be towed. He was able to get $200 cash for metal and free towing, which we used on our next trip.