North America

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Winnipeg Layover

I made it safely and even a little early to Winnipeg, where I have a two-hour layover. I just had dinner at the TGI Fridays (didn’t know we had one in Canada) and now there’s only an hour left till boarding starts.

It was a painful flight. I’ve been fighting a cold for about a week now and am still stuffy. So the change in air pressure was excruciating on the ear drums and my left ear refuses to clear. I’ll be glad when I get to Calgary tonight.

I did manage to squeeze in a solid hour of work on a translation and coding project, but I have to admit that a 17″ MacBook Pro is too big if you have someone sitting next to you. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case today since I was in a row of three seats and the middle one was unoccupied.

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A Response!

I just got a response about the 2003 Ranger in Calgary! The guy replied that I must have missed some options when I did my valuation and he gave me a link to the tool he used. I’d used the same one and while I did miss some options (some of which were not listed in the ad) so did he.

So my offer was on the low end but in the ball park and his belief that he was priced on the low end of the scale was wrong. I made a new offer of $4,300 pending the inspection and he said that while that’s very reasonable, he’s not ready to accept it.

The magic number is going to be about $4,700, but that’s too high for me at this point. I could do it and have money left over for the tow package, but it’s cutting it really close. I’ll see what the dealership in Edmonton says and if that’s no go, the guy with the 2003 is expecting a call or email from me on Tuesday.

Both trucks are dark green, my favourite colour option for the Ranger. 🙂

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Expanding the Search Radius

I’m rather kicking myself for buying a plane ticket to Calgary before looking at the options in Edmonton. I just found a 2000 Ranger with less than 200,000KM at a dealership in Edmonton. Fully inspected, with a one year warranty and listed at $3,000, which is a steal. I’d probably still have an independent inspection done, but the warranty tells me the dealership would stand by their own.

I sent an offer. Maybe it could be delivered to me closer to Calgary. Maybe I’d lose $120 on the hotel in Calgary and pay a little extra to leave the rental car in Edmonton. Maybe I’d get to meet up with Donna and Ken in Red Deer for lunch on Monday. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

If not this one, then I have decided that if I haven’t found anything in Calgary by Tuesday I’ll leave for Edmonton first thing Wednesday.  The more I search, the more I know I will not settle for anything less recent than a 1998 or with more than 200,000KM.

My insurance broker neglected to mention a little thing called an insurance inspection for vehicles older than 12 to 15 years. It’s not required by all insurance companies, but if I can eliminate some hoops, that would be good.

At any rate, I wouldn’t expect to hear back from the dealership in Edmonton until Monday anyway, so I might as well get to Calgary and hit the ground running. The right truck is out there for me!

Now, I need to go pack. Note to self: grab the GPS, too!

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Frustration

In the last week, I have sent seven replies to truck-for-sale ads, following up with phone messages when I could. No one has responded. Four of those messages were, “I want to buy your truck, get back to me so I can schedule an inspection.” I guess no one really wants to sell. That or people don’t like the idea of the inspection without meeting me first and are too rude to let me know.

I’m leaving for Calgary tomorrow (!) and my confidence is shaky that I will be able to purchase something quickly since sellers can’t be bothered to respond to to queries about their ads.

Returning from Calgary without a truck is not an option, but I have to remain smart in my decision-making process. More than 250,000KM is out. Rust is out. After comparing bed dimensions, flareside is out (painful since there is a gorgeous 2004 flareside with a topper and almost no mileage at a good price on the market). And spending more than $4,000 is definitely not a smart move. Now that I know so much about the Ford Ranger I’m leery about expanding the search radius to its rival, the GMC Sonoma, but I may not have any choice.

If I don’t find any more decent trucks online tomorrow night, Monday is going to have me starting a tour of all the used vehicle dealerships in the Calgary area. I find that painfully inefficient when an online search tells me that what I want is available except that the sellers are impossible to reach.

Moya is out there somewhere, I know, but she sure is being furtive!

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Scary Mail

Jody emailed me tonight to let me know she got some mail for me from “Government of Alberta, Driver Fitness and Monitoring, Edmonton” and that it was probably my stickers for the license plate but did I want her to open up the envelope and check?

I quickly Googled Driver Fitness and Monitoring because it didn’t sound good and the results caused me to reply with, “Yes.”

It took about an hour for her to get back to me while I fretted. Did someone report me for dangerous driving? Was I ticketed for something and never informed? The best case scenario I could envision was that I needed to get my eyes tested since they didn’t do that when I got my license here (wearing glasses or contacts is a condition on my license). I kept telling myself, “Calm down. Whatever it is, you’ll deal with it. No sense working yourself up over nothing.” But you try to get a letter from a place called Driver Fitness and Monitoring without knowing the contents and not fret over it!

Jody’s next email had the subject line “Mail is OK” with a scan of the letter. I just laughed and laughed and laughed because the letter basically said what the lady from Service Alberta told me yesterday.

Here’s the letter:

The highlights:

-Your Accent has been reported unrepairable. It cannot be registered or put on the road. It can only be sold for scrap or dismantled for pairs.

-If you still have your registration and license plate, you can transfer them to a new vehicle.

-If you don’t have the registration and license plate, advise a registry office so that they can be cancelled.

I am once again thankful that Jody reminded me to go grab my license plate off the car. I am certain I would not have thought to do so myself. I am really fond of that license plate because it is just one number off from the motorhome so I only have to remember which is the 6 and which is the 7. It’s like having a matched set, which is what my rig might look like soon if the seller would only get back to me! 🙂