I never lost any sleep over the van. As we drove away from it for the last time, knowing that we would never drive it again, I didn't care. A car is just a car.
At the same time that our dog was dying of cancer, our Chrysler Town and Country van started giving us trouble. A couple of times I joked morbidly that I wasn't sure which would die first; it turned out to be the van.
On the same trip I mentioned in my previous post -- when Lily had to be moved from one kennel to another -- our van had serious problems. We had to drive 1,000 miles one way to Tulare, CA for an archery tournament. The van had 195,000 miles on it, so we were going to take my Taurus, but we changed at the last minute because Western Washington was covered in ice and snow, and the van had all-wheel drive. It was still in pretty decent shape, so we didn't anticipate any problems.
We drove all the way to Sacramento in one day. We were leaving Marie Calendar's, headed for a motel, when the power steering went out. I drove to a parking lot, where a guy stopped and showed us that the serpentine belt had fallen off. He gave us the name of a repair place nearby, but it was late evening by then.
If you don't know what a serpentine belt is, here's a little primer: 1) they call it that because it snakes all around, and 2) if it comes off, your car stops working real quick. I managed to drive the car about a quarter mile to a motel, although even that quarter mile was an adventure. The lights shut off, the wipers stopped working, the steering was still out, but we made it.
As we were still 200 miles from our destination, planning to drive there the next morning, this seemed like a disaster; however, Jackie started putting a plan together. The next morning, we called Enterprise Car Rental (We'll pick you up!) and rented a car. They picked me up, and I went to rent a car while Jackie called the repair place and then AAA. I drove back to the motel in time to follow the tow truck to Perfection Auto in Elk Grove, CA.
While Perfection Auto worked on the van, Jackie drove the rental car on to Tulare with the boys for Lucas's archery tournament, and I waited in Elk Grove. Perfection got the car ready, and I drove to Tulare to meet Jackie and the boys. While Lucas was shooting in his tournament the next morning, Jackie and I drove down the street to the Tulare Enterprise and turned in the rental car. And that could have been the end of it, but it wasn't.
Enterpise and the tournament, at the Tulare Fairgrounds, were on the same street maybe two miles apart. We drove back from turning the car in, and in the parking lot at the fairgrounds, the power steering went out.
From there I'll shorten the story. Enterprise picked up Jackie and rented her the same car. A nice guy at a repair shop near the fairgrounds put the belt back on for me. We ended up driving two cars home, the van and a rental, and the van made it all the way back. Now it had 197,000 miles on it, and Jackie wouldn't drive it. Repairs to get it working well were going to be about as much as the car was worth. I drove it for three days, figuring we could get a few more months out of it. On the third day, the serpentine belt slipped off for the third time, and it died at an intersection in Issaquah, and that was it. We had it towed to our repair shop, where it still sits, waiting to be cannibalized for parts.
Jackie ended up with a high-end, nearly new Chevy Equinox, dark gray, which is the nice ride pictured above. This is the good thing about getting rid of a car; you end up better off, except for the cost.
My only regret was that we couldn't quite make it to 200,000 miles. That would have been cool.
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