Unfortunately the camera just doesn't do justice to the color of the car.

Friday just before lunchtime I got a call from my sales guy Lee telling me that even though the online order database showed the car was supposed to ship yesterday and deliver tomorrow, it was already there. He said he really would have liked to give me a week's notice so I wouldn't feel rushed but it actually worked out for the best. Chi is on call this weekend which means I would have had to wait another week to pick up my new "baby" had it arrived when expected. So.......

Saturday we made the 3 hour trek to Sioux City to pick the car up. I was a little concerned because some rather crappy weather (possible severe thunderstorms) had been forecasted for our area. The last thing I wanted to do is have a brand spankin new car out in that. At first it didn't look like it was going to be too horrible and Lee told me Sioux City wasn't expecting anything worse than rain so we decided to risk it. We left the house about 9am and it was actually looking like the sun was going to shine. That didn't last long though. By the time we got gas and were 10 miles out of town, it started to rain. It wasn't anything major so we continued on. It seemed like the whole drive was met with bands of rain, sun, cloudiness, and fairly strong winds but still nothing over the top or dangerous.

When we arrived in Sioux City, it was still pretty cloudy but the rain had stopped. I went in and met with Lee briefly and then went back to the finance office to sign papers. Lemme tell you I think that was the quickest I've been in and out of one of those places and I saved an additional $500 (manufacturer rebate - SCORE!) which enabled me to take the 3.9%/4 year financing for the same payment 4.9%/5 year deal would have worked out without the $500 savings (SCORE 2!). During the time I was there, Chi and Lee took a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR (Evo for short - see pic below) out for a test drive.

When I came back out into the showroom, one of the other sales guys told me that they hadn't come back yet. I told him I wouldn't be surprised if they never came back. Chi is absolutely in love with this car and it was all I could do to get him out of the place without taking this car home too. Of course six months from now will be a very different story unless something drastic happens. Yep, that's right. If things go as planned, one of these little beauties which can kick a Corvette's ass in a race will be on order for the little man of the house. LOL Boys and their toys!

When the test drive was over, Lee gave me the books for my car along with the keys then took us out to where it was sitting on the lot. He had me inspect it and then we just shot the shit for a few minutes. He told me if I ever had trouble with the Mitsu dealer down here to let him know and he would make a phone call so it wouldn't happen any more (I totally love that guy!). I also took at look at the Evo. It's a pretty nice little car (for a sedan - can you tell that I prefer coupes? LOL). The interior is a little bland but that's to be expected when it comes to a performance car and the recaro seats more than make up for it because they absolutely rock! It's also got a ton of room for no bigger than it is. Chi said that even with the seat adjusted for him to comfortably drive, he could sit in the back and have plenty of room. That's good considering he's 6' tall. I didn't get a chance to drive it but Chi told me it takes off like a bat out of hell and corners like it's on rails so I'm sure that he will more than enjoy his little $40000 toy.

Since it was around lunchtime when we got done, Lee said we were more than welcome to leave one of our cars at the lot, go eat, then come back and get it so we wouldn't have to mess around with both vehicles. TBB is just going to love this....we ended up going to eat at the Perkins she and I went to when we went to see Def Leppard in Sioux City back in 2003. It was much less lively this time and I didn't see any weirdo guys exposing themselves - thank God!

By the time we got back from lunch and picked up Chi's car at the dealer, it was starting to clear off and we thought we might have actually managed to escape the bad weather. Not so. We were maybe on the road for a half hour when we hit rain. At first I thought it was hail and I started swearing up a storm but it turned out to only be BIG drops of water thank goodness. We weren't out of the clear though. As we continued on down the road, Chi called me and said that he was receiving tornado warnings for Dallas county (the one we live in) on his phone. SHIT! Now you can bet your ass there was no fucking way I was going to risk bringing a new car into that so I told him we would just wait and see what was going on when we got closer to the I-29/I-680 interchange. When we got down there, the sky was sunny to our west, still a little cloudy to our east, and warnings still coming through for our area back home. It was then I decided we would take a detour through Omaha and hang out at the mall for awhile so the crap going on at home could blow over before we arrived.

The drive home was windier than hell and I was pissed that there was brush blowing across the road just as I was driving through. At least it didn't end up scratching the paint and we did make it home to a house with no damage rather than a pile of rubble. From the reports I heard, it just missed our house since some of the tornadoes that hit were only about 30 miles away. There was even one in north Ames which caused them to evac the stadium 30 minutes before game time.

To sum everything up....I absolutely LOVE my car. I didn't get to test drive a manual but lemme just say that I love it even more than I thought I would. I'm especially impressed with the gear box arrangement. Reverse is up by 1st gear rather than down by 6th and you have to lift a lever to put it in reverse so there is no way to mistake it or have trouble finding it unlike the Acura RSX. Oh yah, this car also takes off like a bat out of hell. You barely touch the gas and you're flying. Hell, you could do 80 in 3rd gear and it wouldn't complain. LOL

And now for something completely different....

This weather completely SUCKS! It actually started snowing today causing a cold, slushy mess to be waiting for me when I came out of work. Oh how I love having the heated seat feature in my car - they are fantastic! Within five minutes of starting the car, that bad boy was feeling tropical - gotta love it! Anyway....now the winds have picked up and it's nothing but a God awful blowing, freezing mess outside. YUCK! And it was how warm last week???

Otay....I's off now so I can have a shower and get to bed.

Til next time....