One Who Dares: 2009/08

Saturday, August 15, 2009

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Here's me at the Green Valley Ranch sportsbook. T-shirt is one I got from the Minnesota Public Radio store in the Mall of America in Minnesota. It says, "So Many Books . . . So Little Time. "

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Van Go

A quick explanation / justification for last night's photos is in order. My van is in danger of being crushed. The extension of the Cash-For-Clunkers program has impelled us to do more research into trading up, and it looks like a better option than we thought at first. We're not sure when we're going to make the deal on a new vehicle, but it could be any day now. But you don't just say good-bye to a conversion van without initiating some sort of van-appropriate activity as a sendoff.

Pattie wanted to go to dinner at Sonic last night. It occurred to me that a Friday night at a drive-in restaurant would do nicely for van-informed festivities and related media. I took about a dozen photos with my BlackBerry, half of which I posted to this blog and half of which will never see the light of day again.

The van in question is a 1993 GMC Vandura. It has taken us all over the continent since we acquired it in 2000. But it is aging, and it is unsuitable for Las Vegas (low mileage, hard to park). We are probably going to sacrifice it if we can find a newer, smaller vehicle that isn't uniquely ugly and inefficient.

This van was not my first. But it was a thing of beauty at one time, a pinnacle of middle-middle class consumer culture. It had mood lighting, bucket seats, ambitious upholstery, and even a television. Pattie and I slept in it more than once when we were roughing it in some campground somewhere in North America. It will be missed.