Happy March, Everyone! It's been a busy weekend and I'm still trying to recover. Ron and I spent the last couple days helping Mandi move from San Francisco to Oakland. This is her 3rd apartment since she moved back from NYC, so hopefully she will stay put for a while! Not that Ron minds. He loves to be able to help the girls and it gives him the opportunity to justify himself for keeping our full size van.
Soon after our twins were born way back in 1988, Ron bought our first mini-van. It was so much easier to get all the car seats situated in our Chevy van and to get the girls in and out of the car. However, having a van meant that I had to learn how to drive a "bus" and that our parking choices were sometimes limited because of the overhead clearance. We lived in Texas at the time and often traveled around our big state and back and forth to Arizona to visit Ron's parents. I have to admit that it was a great way to travel on vacation - we even made the trek to Disneyland in it when the JB was 6 and Mandi & Beckie were 4.
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| The Mini |
Around 1993, Ron decided that it was time to upgrade to a full-sized customized Chevy van. Traveling with a wife, 3 girls and a mother-in-law (mom lived with us at the time), made it difficult to squeeze all our luggage into the mini. I remember one trip when Ron piled the luggage on the top of the mini and tied it down with rope and bungee cords. Then it rained - what an ordeal! We spent the first day of that vacation in wet clothes! He'd had enough of that, so Ron brought home Big Blue around 1993. "She" was a full-size custom Chevy van with plush blue interior. Driving and parking that monster was a challenge for me but I had no choice but to learn to do it.
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| Big Blue during a trip to Northern Arizona - yes, that's snow! |
Having Big Blue made it much easier for us to drive the girls and friends here and there. As a girl scout leader it was helpful to be able to deliver cookies out of the back of the van and to take the troop on field trips. Yes, there were many benefits to having a bus, but I really began to long for something smaller...something sporty. Ron loved being able to take comfortable car trips and we never had to listen to the girls fight with each other in the back of the van because they had plenty of space.
Before we left Arizona at the end of 2000, we got a new Chevy van and it was beautiful. The color was an iridescent teal that changed color in the light. The interior was tan leather and extremely comfortable to ride in and to drive. We had this van during the time that I was helping to drive the girls to away games for volleyball or football. When JB started college in 2004, we drove her and all her belongings to Santa Barbara in this van. Ron is a master at packing the van - it's like watching a real game of Tetris when he starts packing up!
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| Shiny and green! This was an anniversary trip to Palm Springs. |
We put a lot of miles on that van back and forth to Santa Barbara and around the state, but we lost her on Thanksgiving Eve 2005, when a guy driving towards me in a Toyota Camry decided to make a left turn. I slammed on the brakes, but I hit him anyway. His car scooted back through the intersection and my beautiful blue-green bus was totaled. Physically, I was fine since I was wearing my seat belt, but my van was done. It surprised me how emotionally attached I was to that car.
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| The current Beeson Bus - taking Mandi & Beckie to college |
We still had years of moving the girls back and forth from college so Ron was determined to buy another van. He had to go all the was to LA to find what he was looking for and we still have that van now. I'm not attached to this one the way I was to the last. "She" isn't as pretty - she's grey with a grey interior - nothing special, but she has taken us on many great trips. We've made many trips to Santa Barbara, lots of trips to Napa and Sonoma and 3 trips to Disneyland (the last two of those Disney trips with our Wild Thing). It's been a good bus, but I'm starting to long for something smaller and sporty again...something that we can park without worrying about the overhead clearance and length of the parking space...sigh...I know that Ron isn't ready to let go of the Beeson Bus, though. He's certain that it will come in handy the next time we need to buy a new mattress or TV or something big. He is also convinced that since it's my car, it's the safest thing I could be driving. He just won't let go. So even though the price of gas is ridiculous and I'm itching to ride in something smaller, I'm stuck with the Beeson Bus.
Maybe someday....
1 comment:
Oh, my! We get whatever works. I remember one time when Amalie's car was done, and we bought something new. A Volvo sedan, if I remember correctly. I wanted something more sporty (we had two cars then), and she agreed. But when I sat in it at the dealer's, I didn't like the cramped space. And I'm not very big!
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