Our Retro Van........

All good things must come to an end.
This too shall pass.
You'll get over it.
Time heals everything.
Joy comes in the morning?

Well, no matter the quote, the van is no longer a REAL part of our family. Daniel drives it back and forth to his job now and we will take it to the ocean every once in a while..........but it is done being a main mode of transportation.
I'm not just real happy about it.
We've had it for a hundred years or so and it's kind of hard to let go of.
It used to be filled to capacity, which is 8. It's just a plain old passenger van. Nothing fancy, no rear air conditioner, no automatic locks and you roll the window up just like the Walton's did on their trucks.
This van has caused us very little trouble, it has just a few dents and a scratch I am SURE that I am guilty of. Just the scratch, not the dents. I don't do dents.
Do you know how much you can get into the back of a van this size? A desk, a small dresser, chairs, bikes, yard art........just about anything on the side of the road would fit in this van. You could take 8 people to Kansas and still have room for all the stuff your mom sends back with you. We have not folded clothes for a trip for a LONG time. We just hung them up in the back. neato.
Boomer our dog used to love to lay in between the two front seats. He'd just sleep, I think he smiled, too. We've had car-seats in this van, grand kids in this van, a new daughter in law in this van and LOTS of friends. We could take anybody anywhere, that is IF they could get in it. There have been lawn mowers, blowers and weed eaters in the back.......gas tanks, too. We have stuffed it plumb full of camping things........even firewood.
It gets about 18 mpg on the highway.
I'm sure it has happened, but I don't remember a time that I was stranded in this van. It always started. Even if it died, it started right back up.
The glove box lock is broke, but if you hold your mouth just right, you can close it and it will stay closed.
There is a big oil spill (ha) on the floor by the middle seat.......we got rather careless in the end.
I am very used to having LOTS and LOTS of room to put things........ice chests, groceries, boxes with empty water jugs waiting to be filled up.......
The back door is dragging a bit and is really hard to close. It is one door we didn't mind the kids slamming.
sniff sniff
I'm going to miss our old van when it's gone.
It's not that I don't like the car we just got, it's that I just REALLY REALLY like the van.
We've put lots of miles on it, and I'd say most of them were happy.