Our Not-So-Much Mini Van and Vomit

So I hope that title lured you into this little tale. It begins with a hopeful family off for some Saturday errands before heading to the promise Sea World Land. The errand isn't all that bad for the kids because it was filling the kids' desires for buying a mini van which almost surpasses ours. We only had two we were viewing. . .one in San Antonio and one in San Marcos a good 40+ min drive away.

The first look took no more then 10 minutes. The van was nice but more then a bit monochromatic with it's light gray exterior and matching light gray interior. Blah, to say the least. We opted to get some lunch on the way at our used to be favorite Taco Cabana. Isn't speed the point of drive thrus? Well, after ten minutes of waiting and a free lemonade for our inconvenience, we finally were on our way. Psych! The people at the Cabana gave us so box loaded with about 20 burritos. We didn't notice until we were down the road away. We wound our way back getting slightly lost on some back roads to return the unordered food and pick up the oj we had ordered and wasn't given to us.

Then, 3 exits from our destination, Tiago pukes. Lucky us for free lemonade because it caught the second round of vomit. A tearful and slimed Tiago created a dilemma. (there goes all the good parent vibes you had earlier when you saw us playing baseball in the house). Should we abandon the search and drive the 45 minutes back always wondering what if? Or should we just take a quick look? Tiago voted quick look along with the rest of us. I told you he wanted a van.

Now imagine, a family of five squished into a dirty civic with puke child and nap needing infant along with a disheveled mother who noticed that her leg hairs with borderline neanderthal looking pull up to see your sparkling vehicle. You would probably burst out laughing and send the show on its way. Instead, this poor, desperate college grad wooed us with much vigor and vim. One reason had to do with Fernando's lust filled eyes. After five hours bargaining, revealing top secret documents, offering babysitting, loan reviewing, sleeping in the van, heading the the outlets, I wanted to bail. Fernando kindly agreed and as we were leaving they told us to take the van home and think about it for the weekend. SO here it is at it's temporary home. Kind of funny, no? I personally think the black on black is a bit hearse looking, but that is the top of the line for you.












I am revelationally challenged. Knowing this, I asked for a sign. Please feel free to look up all the scriptures that discuss sign seeking people. I deserve all the repercussion for doing this to my family. So, just before we were going to "seal" the deal, the sales rep wanted to let the kids watch one of the movies they brought. He starts into the bonuses of having such a dvd player when it totally malfunctions. That's right. The dvd player that had been working all of the sudden "ceased" the dvd and could not be fixed. All the mechanics came to look and tried to solve the problem. One even tried to jam a folded paper into the player as if that was going to work. Each one had a different story. Combined, the reason for the stuck dvd was due to a jam riddled sticky dvd that was ceased by the player. Time needed to repair the dvd 6-8 weeks. This didn't look good since we were planning on that dvd player to help us on our California drive. That's a post for another day.

We brought it home. Fernando did some more internet researching. He fixed the dvd player. We made pro and con lists. We are taking it back. I will miss the supped up everything that the van offered. I won't bore you with the complete list but it was the top of the top model for Honda Odysseys at a pretty good price. It even came equipped with PAX tires which magically never go flat or can even be penetrated. The only real regret (aside from keeping Tiago there) is the disappointment that sales rep will have for his schmoozing.