First Day Shopping...

A Good Day…. Enjoying the Van…

Yesterday, since there was no threat of snow, I was out early for a small road trip in my new van.  I want to spend some time getting used to the feel and the controls as well as allowing any mechanical issues to come out before I take the van to Minneapolis in July and North Carolina in the fall.

One of the reasons that I got the van, although I really just missed having a van after trading my 2001 Windstar in on the Elantra, is that I have several road trips planned and will be much more comfortable on the trip and be able to carry my gear easily.  Two of the places that I am going are rentals for week long stays.  Each home has elevators.  One is a condo that will require an elevator to get to our floor, the other is a three story house that has an elevator in the house.

Many of the ladies who will be going on these trips are getting older and hearts are getting weaker and backs are getting more tired, so we try to make carrying things easy.  When you go to a nice hotel, they have wonderful carts that you can take to your car and load with all of your stuff to take them to your room.  But such helpful carts are not available at houses and condos.  SO…. I found a nice little cart at the Restaurant Store in Lancaster, in their janitorial section, that provides a flatbed for boxes and bags, and will hold up to 800 pounds so it can be rolled from the van to the elevator.  The handle has several different ways to lock for easy pulling/pushing and folds down for flat storage.  So my first trip in the van was to that store for easy loading for all of my trips.

After getting the items from the Restaurant Store, I headed home.  I decided to stop at Hershey Motors to find out about the repair of a tiny stone chip that was in the windshield of the van.  My salesman, Neil, was there and he got on the phone right away so I could get the time scheduled to get it fixed.  We were in touch with Tamorrow (yes, her real name) the tech who fixes windshields she asked me if I could wait 20 minutes at Hershey, she would come right out.  So I said ‘Sure’ so I could get it fixed immediately.

I had mentioned to Neil that the low pressure light was on in the dashboard, so while we waited for Tamorrow, he had the Service Department take the van into the garage, checked the tires and got the light reset.  By the time they were done, Tamorrow was there and did such a masterful job at filling the chip that it is really hard to even see it.

So the van is now PERFECT.  I am so happy with it… giddy almost.  I just have to figure out the dashboard controls and remember how to park the larger vehicle at WalMart!