Holy crap! We were starting to think it would never happen, and so were you, but it's true! It's finally true! The Badunkadunk is a running machine again!!

After a couple of new parts installed in the pouring rain didn't help, the mood around here was grim. We were looking into having it towed into a shop, leaving it to the professionals. But then Anthony and his brother adjusted the timing and she fired right up! And boy was it loud.

So loud, in fact, that we had to shut her down right away, lest the cul-de-sac residents form a posse. We'll have to rattle the windows for 20 minutes tomorrow for our initial run-in, most likely explaining to many people what all the ruckus is about.

Anyway, Spring arrives tomorrow, and we couldn't be happier. We're not ready to just hop in and drive off, there is still more to do, but this is a HUGE step in the right direction. We're psyched.

Just think of how much more we're going to enjoy this trip now, in our practically home-built car-home. Every time we turn the key, we'll look at each other and smile, get all giddy, punch up some Beach Boys on the satellite radio, and head down the road, bopping and smiling and laughing and singing 'til the wheels come off.

And really, it's a good thing because we were getting really sick of writing, and you were getting really sick of reading, about car stuff. There's more to see in this country, we're fairly sure, than the inside of garages and the strip malls of suburbia. We have lists and lists of these places, books filled with them, we're sure they're out there.

Just the cutest thing ever.