Photo-a-Day December 31

Well, here we are ... on the last photo-a-day for December. Today's photo is another one I found in the photo drawer. It was taken in November 1980 upon our arrival home from the hospital with our second precious little boy and while that is worth emphasis, in this post I will focus on that orange VW Bus in the background.
Yes ... the first family "mini van." I loved that car ... driving over the front wheels, manual transmission, the entire interior could be hosed out after a soccer game ... or a big spill, and it could transport a carload of people. I guess I should add what it couldn't do ... travel uphill at the minimum posted speed limit, could make surprise lane changes on a windy day, and the body felt like you were driving a tin can. With all that said ... we have many precious memories involved as owners of that van. And there are some incidences that we can now laugh at decades later that were pretty scary at the time.
Several months ago my co-worker and I had a great lunch conversation about our vans. She owned the same vehicle and in the same color/year. We had fun comparing our stories and I knew I would have to blog about it sooner or later.
Here are a few VW Van "disasters": One day while picking Tim up from kindergarten I got Matt out of the carseat and proceeded to slide the door shut ... only it kept going ... right off the track. No, I'm not that strong! I was only a few blocks from home but my car was filled with groceries. Thankfully the school secretary helped me get home -- I'm sure that was not in her job description. I was so thankful for her help.
We have several Wallowa Lake vacation horror stories involving the gas pump and being stranded on the darkest road between Joseph and the state park. Or when we had a gas leak between Pendleton and LaGrande. The Elgin gas station owner asked us to move it off his property. Pretty scary stuff ...
We sold this van in the late 80's to upgrade to an Astro ... well, now ... that's another chapter in car ownership.
Thanks for stopping by during the month of December. Wishing you all a happy, healthy 2009.
Happy New Year!