The End of the Mini Van

Driving the van in Niagara Falls, CA.

It was a day like any other.  Daughter has been the primary driver of the van for a while now.  We figured that the oldest car should be the one that is going back and forth to the Community College and now the 4 year college.  She walks a few dogs during the week.  All of her clients are located within a couple of miles of the house.

I was at work when I started getting text messages from her.

"The van seems to be handling weird.  It's like the power steering is gone."

"Walking Ben now, I'm going to try to drive the car home."

"Is the van supposed to be smoking?"

In good weather and bad....

Of course, I was not in the same room as my cell phone when these messages started coming in.  I walked back to my desk to find the above string of text messages followed by:

"Lots of blue smoke coming from van.  There was a large thump."

"I pulled over into the field.  Walking rest of the way home."

"I went over to the car with Dad after he got home.  It won't start again."

So, after I got home, I heard the rest of the story.

Our van dropped it's transmission on the way home.  After 150,000 miles, we decided that the van has lived a wonderful life.  We are not going to try to fix it.  A new to us car is in the works.  For now, we've got the van sitting in our driveway, waiting while we decide what we're going to do with it.

Loaded up to move oldest kid to Pennsylvania.

Overall, it's been an amazing car.  It's taken us to Canada and back.  To Niagara Falls.  Out to Minnesota.  To the Black Hills of South Dakota.  To Indiana.  On multiple field trips with the Girl Scouts, and on several very memorable trips with the Robotics Team.  I've had a good chunk of the kids from the high school in my car over the years.  One memorable incident involved one of daughter's friends swooning when she realized that she was sitting in the same seat that "Boy Gorgeous" sat in a couple of days before.

We've moved three kids in and out of college... and the oldest into his house at Grad. School.  I wish we could have made it a few more months.  We have another big move coming up next month.  I really would have liked to have the van to haul stuff. 

Oh, the memories we've made with that car!