The End of An Era

It IS the end of an era! We no longer own a Gherkin Mobile.

We have had a 15 passenger van since 1994 - that's 23 years! Our first van was a 1991 gray Dodge Ram. It lasted until it's trips down the ALCAN. It probably had more life in it, but we saw the end...and so we put it out of our it's misery.

Our next van was the Big Red Beast. In 2005, we purchased a 2005 red Ford e350.  Within two years we purchased The Caboose - our 31 foot trailer. We made lots of great family memories with the combination.

As our expected retirement lifestyle has changed we knew we would need to sell Big Red. It simply doesn't make a good toad.  We need a manual car the motorhome can easily tow.

We sold the Van to Pastor John - it will live anew as a church  van. A bus ministry is planned and Big Red will be the prime mover of that program. It makes us smile to think of  Big Red blessing this church, which has blessed our daughter....and blessing youth and those needing rides for years to come. About those years - we were a bit worried Big Red may quit working as soon as we sold it - though both our mechanics said it was in good shape.  You just hate that chance with a CHURCH and friends...so we're praying for the life of the van.

They've had the van since we began our travels on the 11th....but needed to bring it back so the boys could put the seats in it one last time. LOL

It was an odd moment when Big Red drove away. 

We had all those kids represented by the stick figures in 2005.....and now we're down to three Gherkins at home. The times are changing.

Yep, the end of an era. We were blessed to be able to use John and Nadine's pickup for a couple of days. Sunday was crowded...we realize now this would not make a good toad for us.

3 big size Gherkins in the back seat of a little pick up -
wasn't bad except getting IN and out!

 We went from having four cars, a trailer and a motorhome on our insurance, to having Mom G's car and the motorhome on our insurance. Not a bad month.