The 'wan' (sic) as we called it in reference to Katja's German accent joined us in the spring of 1994, in time for a trip to NMU for a play at Forrest Roberts theater, dinner at Sweetwater with G&G Irish, and a few moments in the parking lot before the play to listen to the last bit of Pat Donahue's "Midnight Man," a tape that got played and played over the months ahead. That summer we took the van, with a shelf in the back that Dad had made, on a fairly epic camping trip through the West. We travelled 46 days out of the van, washing and vacuuming at odd intervals along the way. The A/C was on almost all summer, especially in the bottom of Hell's Canyon, where we stopped for a bathroom break in 120 F heat. That day we also dried apricots on the dashboard, one of the better uses of the Lumina's famed "dustbuster" shape.

When I was in sports it was usually the van that appeared to pick me up from practice, loaded with teaching stuff for this workshop or that conference, Mom, and sometimes a sibling, friend, or musical instrument. We took the van on spring breaks, too. When I was a junior at RRHS we went to Jackson Hole, with Robin and I sitting in the 'way back' seats and the middle row removed...the Limona, I suppose. It was the van that made the trip to Webb, once with ski rack on top (and then inside when it wouldn't fit into a NYC parking garage, much to the amusement of a wide-eyed attendant), for Spring Break of senior year for my interview and acceptance and then again five months later packed with bike and computer and clothes.

The van would return to Webb just one year later after the move to England - it seemed to make sense that I should drive it rather than selling it. So, for three crazy college years it was the Lumicruiser...ferrying Webbies to and from the airport, travelling north to ski in Vermont, twice going to Florida for internships, and riding around Long Island packed with ice-cream seeking friends who wrote dirty signs to hold up in the windows and then later be found by my guests at Parents' Weekend. Fittingly, the van took me back to Michigan after Webb, too, for my gap summer. Robin inherited the van when she was able to have a car at MSU. She used it to get around town, to get to the UP and back on occasion, and to haul painting equipment for a summer job.

Dad took the van to Universal yesterday with his bike in the back, dropped it off, and pedaled home. Two hundred and eighteen thousand miles were on the odometer and that was just about all the transmission could handle.