Ode to the Mini Van

Our mini van is packed and ready to go, and Jason will head out at the ugly hour of 5:00am tomorrow morning.  Say what you will about mini vans and soccer moms, but this baby is a beast when it comes to moves.  This is now the third cross-state move for this van, and it has proved invaluable in each.  When we moved from New York to Portland, Jason drove the first half of the trip with the mini van packed to the gills, and towing a trailer with all of our stuff.  We then picked up more stuff from his mom in Kansas, thus ditching the trailer for a large moving truck.  The mini van continued on to Portland, still chalk full.  And, oh yeah, transporting a dog and a cat...

From Portland to Denver, we packed the van full of everything Cy and would need for three (or so we thought) months in Denver, plus the dog, plus whatever wouldn't fit in the moving truck.  Plus Cy and me.

And now, it is performing that duty once again as we complete our move to Phoenix...or begin it, however you look at it.



Let me run down just what exactly has been fit into this Mary Poppins Bag of a van: Large dog kennel (with dog), full size electric piano and base, large plastic toy car, small plastic toy car, fold up bookcase, baby gate, and 16 boxes of clothes, toys, books, diapers, and various sundry items, including two boxes of various dry goods items my thought were necessary for our survival.

To get the maximum use out of the vehicle, we have to get a little creative.  Our rear seats stow-and-go  (perhaps the greatest feature possible in any car!), but the middle bench seat does not.  Jason figured out how to increase floor space while not having to leave that seat behind during our move from New York.  It looks a little like this:

 That seat has been folded up, placed on one end and then secured to the driver's seat via the headrest. Rather ingenious, if you ask me.

Here is how the van looked after 16 boxes, Jager's food, the bookcase, baby gate, and the piano had been loaded.  I meant to take a picture of where the piano was before all the boxes went in but I forgot.  It looks pretty full, but there is definitely still room for more!

 

And here it is:  All the random miscellaneous crap (notice the boat sitting on the box? It's full of bathtoys), included both toy cars have finally been loaded, and Jason is now ready to roll.

Goodbye, dear mini van.  We will be reunited again very soon!