In the Journey of Our Milestones, welcome to today's: we bought a car. Not just any car, but one with a kitchen, and a bed (2 in fact!), and a roof that pops open: VW California. Europe, HERE WE COME!

We would like to thank Dalan and Sam for the idea from their honeymoon. And we would like to thank Truffle for letting us now avoid having to find dog-friendly hotels. And VW for designing a car/van that is so perfect for our needs (and that isn't part of the emissions scandal). And everyone we have talked to who has ever owned one who says, "it only gets more and more awesome the more you use it".

The crazy thing is the value they hold - the demand just outstrips supply. It takes something like 4 months to get a new one, and Europeans like to spend their retirement driving around. Camping, I guess. So, that's bad news for buying the car, but good news for when we sell it. And, there's no tax to pay on a used car, so after a year's of driving, depending on how many nights of accommodation we "save," and how many of you we can convince to come visit as a result, we might actually be able to justify this.

This process was not without some ups and downs: we got to see each other's differences in decision making - my feelings versus Dave's spreadsheets. We (read: Dave) learned how to transfer USD to EUR. And we started out by thinking we had respectable negotiation skills, until the seller let us know that he has 3 other buyers lined up and he will only accept the initial asking price. And then BAM, Dave convinced him to split the difference. Except we missed the cutoff at the bank to make the payment, and the cascading affects of that...

... But it's here, and it's ours (until we sell it), and it's even more gigantic than we remembered it being, and more exciting than we thought it would be.

So be ready for pictures with our Grey Goose, because we're looking to test 'er out as soon as we can.

Roadrips- just another reason for you to come visit....

PS, our lovely state of California is not one of the 27 states with reciprocity of a driver's license. So expect a blog post... on going back to driver's school and taking a driver's test.