An anniversary of sorts

Beano the 1993 van

It's a rather strange anniversary.  I don't even know why I remember that date but I do.   Twenty-two years ago today we picked up our brand new Toyota Previa van.  There was a literary celebration at the school where I was teaching at the time. I was wearing skirt; perhaps that's why I remember the date. I had tendinitis in my ankle and I was limping when Richard picked me up after school and we went to get it.

We went through an auto broker on this particular buy because neither of us likes to bargain. Just tell us the price and we'll either pay it or we won't. Driving Kermie the green Volkswagen camper with no cabin heater had become problematic. We weren't canoeing anymore, having started cycling instead, and we thought it was more important to have a vehicle that was reliable for every-day transport than it was to have a camping vehicle  in which the steering would freeze up in cold weather. The plan was that we could still camp in the new van because the middle seat came out and there was room for us to put our foamies and sleeping bags down on the floor.

Klingon bird of prey

We test drove a few mini-vans. My dad had liked Chrysler products so we checked out one of those. It was okay.  We also checked out Mazda which we liked the look of but when we got to the dealership we couldn't get anyone to pay attention to us so we wrote that one off. It was a rainy day when we test drove the Toyota.  We drove around for a bit and then stopped by a park in the north east part of the city and turned off the engine.  We looked at each other and knew without saying anything we were going to buy it. Richard jokes that we wanted it because the shape of the dashboard reminded us of a Klingon bird of prey from Star Trek. The van was amazingly free of traffic noise as we sat there in the rain.  It had air conditioning, a big plus, and it had cruise control. It was an automatic which disappointed me a little. I enjoyed driving a standard but only low-end or sporty cars seemed to have the standard option.

We've slept in the van, which we christened Jelly Bean or Beano for short, only a couple of times when we arrived late at a campground and wanted to get an early start on the bike tour the next morning. Beano has been out to the coast with us a few times and into the Okanagan Valley. We haven't had it on any really long trips because we've always had a smaller vehicle and if we just needed to get there and back, it made sense to use the more economical  car.  Beano has been an old reliable work horse though.

It has helped Richard's parents and his brother move and has hauled our tandem many miles to the start of rides. When I became addicted to audio books on my iPod, Richard had a new stereo put in  as a birthday present for me so I could hook my iPod into the system using the aux jack. I have used that system almost every time I've driven the van since. For a long time the cigarette lighter didn't work but we had that fixed so we could charge electronics.

Beano has also had its share of excitement. It's been rear-ended, the guy paid for the repair upfront.  I think he fell asleep at the wheel while we were stopped for a red light.  When we went backcountry hiking and left Beano in a parking lot near the Trans-Canada highway, someone broke into the back. When we took it in for repairs, we got one of last 3 right tail light assemblies left in North America. Beano was the victim of a car prowling when I was working late one night.  I came out to find the passenger's side window smashed and glass all over the seat. Nothing was taken in either case.  There was nothing worth taking. Beano has had the windshield replaced at least twice, maybe three times.

As vehicles go, we haven't driven it a lot.  It has just over 200,000 km on it. In the last year or so it is starting to show signs of rust.  It has a crack in the windshield well below eye level and I'm not going to bother fixing it. It also has a ding in the bumper that I gave it one day in a parking lot. That's not going to get fixed either. The steering wheel is larger than most and every cover I try tears when I put it on.  The current one has memory foam in it and is patched with hockey tape, much easier on the hands than duct tape.  Occasionally I go on line and look at newer models but as long as I can still get essential parts from the dealership where we get our maintenance done, I'll continue to drive it.  After all, it's an old friend.  I carries lumber and tools although it won't take a full sheet of plywood. It's a bit scruffy around the edges but then so am I.  We suit each other. I don't know if it will make it to 30 with us the way Flopsy the Dodge camper did but, I'd give it a pretty good chance. In the meantime, I'll often think what a good old van it is.