And why shouldn’t I love it? This car is not only comfortable with a vengeance, but it has hauled hundreds of things and thousands of stories, including:
A very large futon and chair that the shop owner was sure I couldn’t stuff into the van (but I did)
Our whole family, two tents, three coolers, a box of dry goods, seven suitcases, six backpacks, rain gear, two tarps, assorted tools, a small cooking stove and propane, a pile of graphic novels and Madlibs, plus who-knows-what-else for a week of camping in Colorado
Many vacuums over the years spied on curbs during half-the-town-move-out week in Lawrence (aka last week in July)
Six poets, including one 7-feet tall, all our luggage, piles of books to sell and lots of popcorn, chips and hummus, and rosemary shortcake to get us to the southwest corner of Kansas and back
The whole innards of Daniel’s dorm room, including stereo, computer, all clothes, a giant bowling pin and a particularly ugly (but comfortable) lime green chair
Seriously, this chair is uglier than it looks in this picture
One canoe, two kayaks, six people, paddles, life jackets and lunches
The entire GSBTQQ (gay straight bi trans queer questioning) alliance of Lawrence High School
Kelley Hunt’s piano, red guitar, cowboy boots, CDs and t-shirts for sale, clothing for both of us for six days (including performance gear, aka black and glittery), my books for sale, 11 yoga mats, a mess of art supplies, and Kelley Hunt herself
A king-sized very heavy couch (strapped to the top of the van like a prize buck) that freaked out my daughter when I picked her up from school that day. Years later, a very large red couch and other furniture driven up to her in St. Paul (fitting miraculously in the van)
Over 2,000 bags of groceries, mostly from Checkers and the Merc
All five of my family plus my 80-something mother-in-law, eight suitcases, piles of Christmas gifts we were hauling back to Lawrence, and over 14 bags of groceries one snow-packed day, all of which needed to be ferried from where the van got embedded in the snow at the start of the drive to our houses
Two big dogs and a gaggle of teenagers
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