Richmond Va.- September 17

We are now parked in Ashland,north of Richmond,visiting our daughter Melissa. Our goal,in the week we have here, is to find her a car. So far that has been an interesting experience. She is a graduate student on a limited budget. She has told us to find a car costing around two thousand dollars. That already makes the search difficult,as most used car dealers only handle cars starting at three thousand. We are spending time also on the computer,checking Craig's list. Our first stop yesterday was at a dealership which had an '87 Volkswagen Jetta for sale. What an awesome-looking car! Like a big muddy-colored tank- and starting up it sounded like one(takes diesel fuel). But you know, once it got over the agony of starting,it quieted down rather nicely! Only has 3OO thousand miles on it,but a little bit over Melissa's budget. That was an exciting start to our search! Over the course of the afternoon I had to drop my preconceived notions of used car salesmen. I thought they could talk your arm off and get a person to to buy anything. Maybe I am naive,but the dealers we met were sure nice-one even had a fluffy little white dog running circles around us! We are now headed out to meet with someone about the car he has to sell-funny thing is that we have as yet to get his address. Stay in touch for more on our continuing search for the clean,,mechanically sound,cheap car.