Van News

We have been looking more seriously into buying a big passenger van. Originally we had thought we would wait until maybe Fall to buy one, but it has increasingly become more and more of a hassle to have to take 2 vehicles anytime we all want to go anywhere. So Bob has been spending a lot of time on the computer, trying to find one for us. He found some he liked Monday, and they were several thousand dollars cheaper than similar vans elsewhere. The catch was that these vans were near Lancaster, PA. He later found out the price differential was due to hail damage. That in and of itself didn't bother us--any van we buy will never see the inside of a garage here in D.C. (don't get me started on the tiny garages here in the land of huge houses), so it very well could suffer hail damage from us. But that's definitely the kind of thing you want to see before buying, so we decided we would make a quick trip up there Tuesday afternoon.

As it turned out, nothing about the trip was quick, LOL. Since we couldn't all fit in our van to drive up there, we left the boys with the McCs, and the girls (Anna and Grace only) with a family from church. This family actually lives quite a bit further in than we do, and there was utility work on the main road between us, so it took a lot longer to get the girls dropped off, which meant we left our house a lot later than I had wanted. The whole drive up there took longer than we had expected, and we programmed the wrong street name into our GPS. Well, it was the right street name, but the wrong small town, so we ended up in a subdivision, not a car dealership. Whoops!

It was still a lovely drive. Too bad PA homeschooling rules are so draconian--the area around York and Lancaster is so beautiful. We saw several Amish buggies, and Amish farmers working their farms with horse-drawn teams. Bob and I had a great time just being by ourselves (well, okay, Faith was there too, but that's almost like being by ourselves--she slept most of the ride!). A cheap date!

When we got to the dealership, at long last, we discovered that the van Bob had been talking to the guy about, even as late as yesterday morning, had, in fact, sold a few days ago. Hmmm. That didn't start things off too well. The hail damage wasn't too bad, and we definitely decided we wanted a 12 passenger van instead of a 15 passenger one, which Bob had been leaning toward, but we weren't going to do business with someone who lied to us! So we drove back, picking up our kids very late (9:30-9:45ish). We have such wonderful friends.

Once we got home, Bob hopped back on the computer and found some 12 passenger vans much closer, in Annapolis. A bonus--they were silver, not white, which Bob didn't really want. He went over there after work today and came back home with one! So now we are the proud owners of a silver 2008 Ford 350 van. I'll have to take a picture tomorrow. It certainly looks imposing out there, but my friends tell me I'll get used to driving it quickly. Right, Marie and Tonya?! I'm hoping that's true! I guess I will take my maiden voyage in it tomorrow. We are all driving back to Annapolis in it to pick up Bob's Odyssey, which he just left parked at the dealership. He'll take that off to work, and I'll drive the big behemoth home. Yeee-haw! and now we are free to go places as a family . . . all in one vehicle!