Ode to My Minivan

We no longer own our van.  Last weekend, my husband drove our 2011 Dodge Caravan from Wisconsin to Kentucky. While Mark was heading south and east, our son-in-law was driving their 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix west from North Carolina to Kentucky. The purpose of the trip was to trade cars. (Lexington Kentucky was a central location and afforded the guys about ten hours of driving on each of two days!) Leah and Nick are expecting their second child in the next week or two. At this stage in their lives, they will benefit from having a van. Two children in car seats in the back of a mini-van seem easier to manage than two children in car seats in the back of a four door car.

I will miss my van for a few reasons. First, I will miss the view. You sit up high in a van and you can see the road really well. I will also miss being able to haul extra people and extra stuff. Our van sat seven very comfortably. If we weren't carrying people, we could stow the seats and treat it like a truck. We packed a lot of stuff in that van when we made our cross-country trip last June and then again mid-August of this year when we moved Ben to Madison. I'll miss the ease of traveling with extra family members, and I'll miss the option of packing more junk than you could ever get in a car's trunk! Finally, I'll miss what driving a mini-van stands for. The era of being a stay at home mom and running from one kids event to another kids practice to picking up the third at school is really and truly over for this stay at home mom. It is over and I miss it. I miss the grade school homework projects, science fairs and choral concerts; I miss the middle school drama; I miss the endless high school activities and sporting events. I miss all the feet under the kitchen table at dinner time...

Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not sad. I only miss what was; those were simple days. I don't long to be back living them, though. I'm happy where I am. I like the freedom our empty nest affords. Sometimes, I even like the quiet.

So I say thanks to my mini-van for being a good friend and providing a safe ride. I know she's in good hands. Soon there will be stale cheerios on the floor and hard fruit snacks buried in the creases of the seats. And that's as it should be. 

Look at all that stuff! A van is a lot like a truck.

The van was packed full...it was mighty enough to haul a trailer full of furniture, too!