Eulogy for a Dead Van

It seems like cars take on a life of their own. They can be temperamental, reliable, fun, old, etc. We depend on them to carry us around in our daily lives. They become our own personal entertainment pod, with CD's, radios and these days even DVD players. We take care of them, feed them, water them, take them to the "doctor" buy them new "shoes" and give them a place to live in our homes. I have had the Venture now for eight years. She was a reliable, car that got me back and forth to Swartz Creek 120 miles a day for seven years. We also made hundreds of trips back and forth from Ann Arbor to our soon to be new home in Cedar. The AWD never failed, and there was not one moment that I felt unsafe in any road conditions with her. I was pretty confident in her ability to get back and forth to California, even though she had 185000 miles on her when we left Michigan. After the 3000 mile trip to California, we put another 7000 miles on her in California. So when we hit Death Valley and the heat, it was too much. It overheated several times, and though we limped up and down the hills to get in and out of Death Valley, a hundred miles later, she just stopped. That was it, sitting by the side of the freeway 30 miles north of Las Vegas. Dead, no movement, no last sigh, just dead.

Dan

The ordeal afterwards, getting the tow truck, waiting for the tow truck, finding a hotel, finding a repair shop, getting a rental to complete the trip home, took the better part of two days, and was exhausting. We're now through that part, and are headed home after a couple of stops in Salt Lake, and Des Moines. Stuff happens, plans change, and it has just become part of this great adventure we have been on since January.

Pictures of Death Valley are posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/danklim1/DeathValley#