The Trip Begins

May 16, 2017

We're finally heading out.  This trip has been on the verge of being canceled more that once during the planning stages, and it's nice that it is actually coming together after all.  Though we could have gone almost anytime of the year, we wanted to travel ahead of school dismissal and hurricane and/or tornado season. 

Much, if not most of this trip hinged around having bought a car prior to arriving on the east coast.  The idea from there was to hop in our new car and head off on a sightseeing adventure as we wind our way back toward Seattle.  Doesn't sound too tough; does it?

Late in 2016, the initial idea for this trip began to formulate.  At first we thought about buying a new Smart Fortwo Cabrio to make the trip.  After checking for a car with the desired options, it became evident that a car with the desired options may have to be factory ordered.  Seeing that Smart  Cars are manufactured in Germany, we knew there could be quite a lead time.  We had contacted a couple of dealers on the east coast and explained our situation and desires.  The dealers always gave us a vague response and seemed not interested in actually placing a factory order.  As we pondered our situation, we finally came to learn that all Smart Cars being manufactured from late spring on, were only electric powered.  With the limited range of an electric vehicle, traveling clear across the country in one, would be extremely impractical if not impossible.  Now what to do?

Janet used to drive a Honda CR-V and always liked that car.  Since the Smart Car was now out of the question, buying another Honda seemed like the next, best choice.  We have spent a fair amount shopping locally for that category of car from all of the competitive brands and finally settled on a Honda HR-V, a slightly smaller CR-V.  

Back off to the east coast dealer web sights to learn the availability of a vehicle that would meet our wants.  

We had arbitrarily selected Boston as a starting point for this trip.  Part of our plans included venturing into Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and Boston is far enough north that we wouldn't have to do too much doubling back before we could resume sightseeing the eastern seaboard of the U.S. 

Upon contacting a large Boston Honda dealer, we were assured that the car we wanted was easily available and to get back in touch with them when we were about 2 weeks from our trip.  Apparently they didn't want to hold a paid for car on their lot for the roughly 6 weeks that we had. 

By now we had purchased one way airline tickets and were pretty far into planning a number of things to see and places to go.  We again contacted the dealer; now ready to purchase. 

Massachusetts, it seems, has a strange law that requires that all vehicles be licensed and cannot be issued a temporary license plate.  Every other time we have bought a car out of the state, we were issued a temporary plate and registered the vehicle once we arrived back home.  Not Boston!

Depending on who we talked to at the dealership, they would either deliver the car to us in New Hampshire, where they could give us a temporary plate, or require us to register the vehicle in Washington beforehand and bring plates with us when we came to pick up the car.  Either way was fine with us, although, delivering the car to us in New Hampshire sounded a little weird. 

After quite a bit of going around and around with a number of the dealer's sales staff, the price was agreed to and we were told that paperwork would be overnighted to us so we could wire the funds to them and complete the purchase.  They promised to call us back. 

By now time was running out and overall, the dealer had been extremely unresponsive and really didn't seem too interested in the transaction.  We spoke to them several times and nothing really seemed to change. 

I found a similarity equipped car in Cambridge Massachusetts, still close enough to the airport.  This dealer seemed quite willing to work with us and even gave us a better price.  Only a small hitch with this one, however. 

According to Cambridge Honda, we would have to get Washington plates on the car before taking delivery.  No option for delivery out of state unless we have a permanent residence.  Now that makes a lot more sense.  Since there was now, not enough time to exchange all of the paperwork and money wires before we depart, we are carrying a cashiers check to the dealer and using some sort of broker to get the plates to Boston "in just a couple of days"!

We are in this deep now and just have to trust that this will all work out.  It seems that the adventure had started long before the trip actually began... 

Oh yea, the day before we left, I finally received a call from Herb Chambers Honda (the Boston dealer we didn't buy the car from), asking if we had received the paperwork. I told him no and it was now, far too late and we didn't appreciate his lack of attention to this matter and that we were canceling.  The paperwork showed up later that day...

It should be interesting having a little time to explore Cambridge while we wait for plates. It's a college town with some very prestigious universities and no doubt, lots to see.