Driving Our Van is an [Adventure]

 [Adventure 46]

I drive a fifteen passenger van that seats twelve. A seat was taken out and the back seat moved up to make room for cargo when it was a disaster response van. It serves us well as a family of seven. Especially during our non-covid days of outings with friends or shuttling theater kids to and from rehearsals. And definitely when we spend any amount of time at Camp Calumet! 

Over the past year our van has decided it really wants to be some sort of emergency vehicle. There is an alarm and a warning that goes off for up to a minute at a time every once in a while as I drive. At times it's on more than it's off. We brought it to the garage and were told that it's a sensor malfunction and there's not anything actually wrong or dangerous - and that the part is on backorder and has been for a year, so we most likely won't ever be able to fix it. Not that we would at the price tag associated with it. There's no way to turn it off, so we live with it. 

More recently the back door of the van has decided to act up. Actually, it's the handle for the door, that sticks in the open position, so you think you've closed the back of the van, but it doesn't actually latch properly. When the van is in our steep driveway, it's quite obvious it's not latched, because it just falls open. In the grocery store parking lot, however, it's not so obvious. 

I'm not quite sure how we made it halfway home before realizing the back door of the van was flapping open. Or how all the groceries stayed in the back of the van, as we made a few ninety-degree turns on our drive. Pulling into the nearest parking lot was nerve wracking once we discovered the door was open - between the turn, the incline, and the sound the glass bottles were making in the back of the van, I was prepared for a couple hundred dollars worth of groceries to be strewn across the road and parking lot by the time my van came to a stop. 

But alas, we made it into a parking space without losing a single morsel. That was one adventure I could have done without!