The Minivan of Awesomeness

There's quite a divide between those that minivan and those who swear they never would, even it was given to them.  When I started telling people how we were getting a van after our second car went for a shit, the divide was pretty impressive.  Pretty much anyone who has never owned a van is anti-van.   Quite simply, they're uncool and unsexy.  Kinda like me.  Vans are the cargo pants of the vehicle world.  They're boxy, unflattering, and you can put all kinds of shit in them.

Case in point: First trip to the cottage. Two adults, two kids, two 70 lbs. dogs, two coolers, two giant totes, 3 suitcases, a laptop bag and toys.  Plus random bags of groceries we couldn't fit in the coolers.  All in one unsexy minivan.  That trumps any shred of anti-van you can fire at me.

Vans are awesome.  They're the best thing to come along since sliced bread (the wheat kind, not the gluten-free kind.  That bread is crap).    

My uncle-in-law bestowed the magical purple wonder on us despite the fact that he has four grown boys, all of which appear to be anti-vanners.  We've known about it for awhile now, but we only came desperate for it when the old Sebring gave up the ghost a month ago.  Three weeks between vehicles when you're home all day with two kids pretty much sucks.  Luckily the weather was good enough to tow the kids around in the bicycle trailer most places we needed to go. 

We only had to use public transportation twice.  Do you know why no one likes to use public transportation?  Because it takes for-freaking-ever to get anywhere.  Thing 1 had a doctor's appointment  the day after the car died. A whole 25 kilometres away.   I thought it would be an adventure for the kiddos to ride the bus, so I planned out the trip.  Three buses and over two hours to come within 15 minutes walking distance of the doc's office.  I also grossly underestimated how much snacks would be required for a two hour bus voyage.  They pretty much ate everything in the first 10 minutes.  Big fail on that one.

Bring on the van, I say! And maybe some cargo pants.