;)
At first, we thought we would do all our car shopping here in the valley, but Margie and Kalib both had doctor appointments in Anchorage. Plus, while I was leaning toward Ford, in no small part because they are an American company but did not participate in the bailout, I also wanted to check out Toyota and Subaru.
First, we had to pick up the rental car that Joey Seibert, Progressive Insurance Adjuster, had reserved for us. So we had Kalib drop us off at Enterprise car rentals. The only vehicle they had available was a big, red, Dodge Caravan. They had us do the usual walk-around to check for dings, cracked windshields and such, and then we drove away, towards Anchorage.
We had barely gotten back on the highway when suddenly I noticed a tiny chip in the windshield, a bit higher than my head. I pointed it out to Margie. "Looks like we're in trouble now!" I said. "They will blame us and make us pay for it."
"I saw it when we got in, but I thought it was a small piece of ice," Margie answered. And then I noticed still another tiny chip, on the lower right hand side.
There was no point in turning around and going back, because they hold you responsible for any damage not on their sheet from the moment you turn on the ignition and start to drive.
So we pressed on to Anchorage. Always, when one nears Anchorage, the plume of steam on the left can be seen rising into the air. Usually, the plume on the right is invisible, except that as you draw near you see the distortions caused by the refractions of light passing through it.
When the temperature is far enough below zero (F. of course) both plumes show. Once we reached town, we headed toward Tudor, where the Alaska Native Medical Center is located. Not far away was a marque that said 11:43 AM, -20 degrees.
Not bad for Anchorage which, by Alaska standards, is thought of as a warm town. Of course, East Anchorage is much colder than the airport, which sits right by the inlet and where the official temperatures are taken.
;)
Margie had two doctor appointments, and after I dropped her off for the second one, I saw two friends from the village of Wainwright exit the hospital and head towards the waiting taxi-cabs.
No point in that. So I gave Rossman and Helen Peetook a ride to the Day's Inn on Fifth Avenue. Helen had taken a fall in November and had suffered a badly-broken leg. They had been in Anchorage since mid-November, but now they were going to go home.
Rossman is a whaling captain. Many times, he and Helen have fed their community with the rich flesh of the bowhead whale, as he is an extremely skilled whaling captain. He knows the ways of the Arctic seas, and the animals that live within and upon. I never traveled with his crew, but I have been on the ice with him for extended periods of time.
;)
After I dropped Rossman and Helen off, I headed toward the nearest Wells Fargo bank and drove into the drive-through to deposit the $2833 check Joey Seibert had made out to me. I wanted it to be available for the down payment, should we close a deal this day. As I waited for my receipt, this fellow made a transaction of his own in the lane adjacent to the teller's window.
;)
Kalib had suffered through his one-year old shots - five of them, so Lavina took the afternoon off to be with him. Here they are, getting into the rented Caravan. This meant that they were going to go car shopping with Margie and me.
;)
When Margie, Lavina and Kalib had traveled to Arizona together last year, they had rented a Subaru Forester and they had liked it. This is Raymond Leddon, the Subaru salesman who helped us out. He led me past the 2009 Foresters to some "slightly used - by rental car agencies and such" 2008's that the dealer wanted to clear off the lot. I then did a test drive on some icy roads. I gunned it, I slammed on the brakes, I turned the steering wheel too sudden, sharp and fast.
And the Forester performed beautifully. I never even came close to losing control. "That's why its the most popular car in Alaska," Leddon boasted. He said it was the very car he had bought for his wife, who had some health problems and so needed a car that was both easy to operate, yet safe on ice and snow.
I was sold - but not necessarily on the 2008. Subaru made some significant changes between the '08 and '09 models and you could tell just by looking that the '09 was a much more substantial vehicle. Plus, I did not like the idea of buying a used rental car. People can be hell on rental cars.
Sold though I was, I had intended to check out Toyota in Anchorage and Ford in Wasilla. And we had promised Melanie that we would meet her at 3:30 at the Kaladi Brothers coffee shop by Title Wave Books.
As we prepared to drive away, Mr. Leddon gave us the thumbs up. He didn't work Sunday but, by gum, if we wanted to come back to town on Sunday he'd come to work that day, anyway, just for us.
"I can't promise," I said, "but right now, your Forester is in first place!"
Perhaps, if I had driven the 2009 model, we would have returned immediately after our visit with Melanie at Kaladi's. I liked the Forester.
;)
Melanie took great interest in our shopping expedition. She wanted to do all that she could to help us find a car that was both economical and green, and I do not mean in color. She brought her iPhone to Kaladi's, hopped onto the web, and gave us some good advice on what was good and what was not.
Here she is showing us a Taurus wagon, or SUV. "It is not good," she said. "Don't get it."
;)
About 4:00 PM, we headed toward the Toyota dealer. This is us, passing through Anchorage on our way there.
;)
Now we have arrived at Kendall Toyota. We have yet to step into the showroom.
;)
Now we have just entered the show room, where we were met by an enthusiastic salesman by the name of Jason. He gave Kalib a "high five." Kalib does not yet know what a high five is, but he enjoyed it, anyway.
;)
I took an immediate interest in the RAV 4. The one on display was pretty damned expensive, nearly $30,000 and the payments were mighty high. Jason said he could get us into a "certified, pre-owned" version at a price we could afford and it would be just as good as if it were brand new.
It would be warranted and everything; certified by Kendall to be in perfect running order. He got out a flip chart that listed all the different parts, features and so on that Kendall certified, to prove to us that a used car would be as good as a new one.
There were several pages to the flip chart and Jason flipped through them all. Not only did I absorb every sentence, but each single word.
;)
I wanted a red one, so he had the workers warm one up and pull it up to the door. This took about half-an-hour, because it was quite chilly.
I didn't get to test drive it, though. Jason test drove it - down some exceedingly icy and slick back roads and he drove like a lunatic - made my performance in the Forester look tame. He was gunning it, slamming on brakes, turning it sharp to the side in the very slickest of places, and always in complete control.
"This is an Alaska car!" he said. "You can't get a better car for Alaska than the Toyota Rav!"
I now felt very bad for Mr. Ledden, because I was completely sold on the RAV. I saw no point in driving home without it - and yet, I felt that we should still look at Ford. Compare the RAV to the Escape.
In the above picture, Kalib is not waving to me. He is waving to salesman Jason. Kalib really liked Jason. I did, too. I wanted to buy the Rav 4, from Jason. It now seemed kind of pointless to even go look at a Ford. Maybe if Jason had let me do the test drive, I would have bought the RAV on the spot.
;)
It was late now and we needed sustenance before hitting the highway home. We had not eaten steak in a long time, but Margie had a craving for one and after what she had been through, I figured she better have one. So Lavina called Jake. The best steak houses were all behind us, and I did not want to go backwards. So we agreed to meet at Applebee's on Muldon, which was more or less on the way home.
As we neared the restaurant, I saw an emergency vehicle leave the scene of an accident ahead of us. When we reached it, wreckage debris was scattered about the road, but it didn't look that bad. Still, you never know.
;)
Not long after we were seated, a waitress came by and took our drink orders. Shortly thereafter, she took our dinner orders. After that, there was no more "short" involved. It became a long ordeal. Lavina and I had both ordered tall lemonades and we took our time drinking them.
Then the waitress brought us more, and we took our time with these.
After a very long time, the dishes that we had ordered were finally brought to us. I had ordered a baked potato, but got mashed potatoes instead. The waitress saw that this was a mistake, took my plate and said she would be right back with the baked potato.
After she left, Jacob, Lavina and Margie discovered that they had no eating utensils, and neither did I. Oh, well. We would just tell the waitress when she brought my plate back with the baked potato on it.
As we waited... and waited... and waited... we drank another round of lemonade. Then the lemonade was gone. We waited. We waited. We waited. Lavina got up and went to the waiter's station, found it unmanned, but did find one set of silverware. She snatched it up, then gave it to Margie.
;)
If you click on this picture and blow it up a bit, you will see that many people seem to be looking around, waiting.
Then we waited... oh, did we wait! If even one waitress had come near to us, I would have grabbed her attention, but none did. No! Not one!
After about three weeks (maybe I exaggerate, slightly) the waitress finally came with my plate. I noted that the other diners at our table were still sitting there, waiting for silverware so they could begin to eat their food. The waitress's face went pale. She ran off to get some silverware.
This involved more waiting, but the shrimp that I had ordered along with my steak came skewered on long, thin, sticks, shish-kabob style. I picked up a stick with six shrimp on it and took a bite. It was cold. It was not warm. It was cold.
Eventually, we got our silverware. Now I could cut my steak and put a fork in it. It, too, was cold. Well, at least the potato should be hot. No, it was cold!
At this moment, the manager came by with a pleasant smile upon her face and asked how we were enjoying our evening at Applebee's.
She picked up the entire tab and promised us that this would not happen again, that next time we came to Applebee's we would have an excellent dining experience. She insisted that it was not the fault of the dedicated server, but that they were experiencing problems in the kitchen. The mortified waitress was extemely apologetic. She must make a living, so we took the manager at her word and left a tip for the waitress.
I appreciate what the manager did, and we did get a free meal out of the experience, but I would have preferred a hot one.