And more snow and the roads are getting pretty rough

The townships west of Gore Bay do not use salt on their roads. They use just enough salt to keep the sand from clumping. About a 1 to 7 mix. The highways get sanded a bit, the side roads just get plowed. Salt and sand do a number on roads and it would be too expensive to maintain the roads. One of the consequences of this is that, unless there is a thaw, a bit of ice and snow will always stay on the road and they become very bumpy with some really nice ridges of ice. I, Bice, experienced driving over a road like that once when the plow that did the highways that I drove every day had a broken salt spreader. It was like driving over rail road tracks and you slide all over the place, even with good winter tires. People here have cars that can manage these roads, 4 wheel or all wheel drive cars.We do not.....up to now. We had been talking about replacing my car for a while. It's old, has 350,000 km. on it and the engine makes quite a roaring sound when driving 90 km or at 1800RPMs, so you either drive 85 or 100 kmh and try to stay out of that sensitive spot rpm wise. No mechanic has been able to figure it out. For us it was more a question of selling while it still runs or drive her till she really dies. This winter has definitely influenced our decision making; we wanted a all wheel drive car. We looked for a KIA Sorento, a Hyundai Santa Fe, or a Toyota RAV4. Tim being Tim of course wants the unicorn and so do I. 1 owner since new, records of oil changes, rust proofing, no accidents, etc. with 100,000 Kms max. All that for $15,000 or less. Lemon Aid book helped a lot. He found the unicorn! After looking at 50 cars on Kijiji and reaching out to 20 potential sellers. One owner, maintenance records, oil sprayed/rust proofing done, no accidents, 17" Alloys. 102,000 on it, 2012 model. I even got my beloved sunroof! He called on Wednesday and the deal was basically done the next evening after the owner, a  retired woman, had sent some extra pictures of engine and exhaust. Car was in Picton (what a lovely city). Because of the terrible freezing rain storm we had on Thursday, we couldn't go down till Saturday, but she was willing to hold the car till Monday at the latest for us. A commitment over the phone was for her as good as a handshake. Off we went to Belleville, a 9 hr. drive, bought the car and then drove back in 2 cars, my old one and my new one on Sunday. That's the story and I'm sticking to it. Like a Rav 4 sticks to the roads! I drove the new-to-us one and fell in love. Very sturdy, extremely comfortable and smooth.
Should have bought one years ago.

And now we got more snow , an additional 20 cm. and the forecast is that more is to come tomorrow afternoon/evening. Not sure where we're going to put all that snow, but is seems that we bought the car just in time

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