Clifford the Big Red Van

I realized I jumped ahead to our little home in my last post and skipped the unfortunate story that was procuring a car that could handle Northern BCs somewhat snowy weather.

The day we were leaving Vancouver we had packed all of our belongings into Mr. Bunbury and were puzzling over how to get Clifford (the big red van) up to the mountains as well as I don't drive. Clifford sooned solved the problem or us.

My aunt, a whizz with cars, came over to visit and we off-handedly mentioned that Clifford had been making some strange noises. We weren't too worried about it, that being said this was before we knew anything at all about cars.

"What kind of noise?"

She asked, her concern already starting to effect us.

"Is it clicking?"

"Yeah, kind of whirring."

"That sounds like your timer belt. That's not good at all."

We went outside and ran the 20 year old minivan for her to listen to. She popped the hood and gave us the diagnosis.

"Yep, that's not good."

"Is it very expensive to fix?"

"Oh, it'll run you about 2500$"

We had bought the van off (you guessed it) Craigslist for 750$ three months back.

"Can we drive it up there?"

"I wouldn't."

With heavy hearts we drove Clifford to the nearest junkyard and turned him over. He had been good to us, it was his time.

And now, though we had lost a car, we could travel up to our new home together with all our things in just one trip.

But the thing about living in a town of 400 in the middle of the mountains is you need a vehicle. And the thing about the bus was it was insured for just the one day.

There was transit that left our tiny town for a small city an hour away twice a week. Monday morning at 7 am we got up, packed our things and caught the bus knowing we would have to buy a car that day or be stuck for at least another week. Stuck with one small grocer, no jobs, no doctors until we had a car.

Tomorrow: Stranded and the Introduction of Little John