The New Adventure Begins

Ok, so it took me three months to find a van that fit all of my criteria. I thought if I was going to do this, I wanted to do on my terms.  First let me list my criteria for you so that you can see how close I got.  It had to have:

Raised roof ..... yes
get around 20 mpg ..... 19 city, 25 highway
Dependable.... yes
Air conditioning .....  had to replace compressor clutch

In my price range..... yes
Less than or around 150K .... 161K
Neat but not necessarily perfect .... I might want to be mobile homeless but I don't want to look that way!
Year unimportant  ..... 1994

So let me let introduce you to the new adventure.  What I found was a 1994 Plymouth Grand Voyager with a Mark III conversion. Yes I will now be rolling around in a green, beefed up, "soccer mom" minivan. But hey, with gas prices the way they are, you can't beat an average of 21 mpg and room to live also.

The very first adventure began with buying the van.  It happen to be 240 miles from where I was at, but not far from my daughter's. So after planning logistics, I hopped a Greyhound Bus. I had my daughter pick me up and transport me on to the van in Conway AR. The van was pretty much as it had been advertised with just a couple of minor surprises. I knew when I left, I was going to have to fix the air conditioner. But I should have remembered that with this model van I might have to replace valve cover gaskets. They are notorious for leaking.  The previous owners had taken good care of the van with regular maintenance and repair receipts back to 2005. Just had 4 new tires within the last 6 months. I can't figure out why they over looked the valve cover gaskets, it's not a complicated or expensive fix.

Once I had the van in my possession and headed home, that is when I got my second surprise.  When I picked up the van it had half a tank of gas.  I knew I didn't need to find the nearest station so I hit I-40 headed towards Little Rock AR.  If you have ever been on this strip of interstate, you know that it's a long strip of nothing but trees with gas stations about every 15-20 miles. When I got to about a quarter tank I thought I had better get gas because I wasn't sure where the next station was. I stop and just paid for a set amount instead of filling up because I was using cash. This gave me three quarters of a tank. Good to go....right?  Well I thought so till I got a couple miles down the road and the gas gauge started a steady decline. Then I was looking for problems ... was I leaking gas down the highway? ... no, don't see any.... what the heck is going on and where is the next station... can I make it?  By this time the GPS is telling me the next station is 11 miles away. So I keep driving and watching this gas gauge fall. Luckily the gas light and station timed out at the same time. So I pulled over and stop the van. After looking it over, I can find nothing. So I get back in and start it up. Guess what, I have three quarters of a tank again.  It would have been nice if the previous owners had let me know to expect a cantankerous gas gauge.  It works, when it is full, it's full, when it is half full, it's half full. But anywhere between full and half a tank it does what it wants too. LOL

Once home I proceeded to fixed the few things it needed and give it a good detailing. I have now removed all of the back seats and we are ready to convert this thing to a mini RV.  I also have yet to give it a name.  I am sure one will present itself soon.

Let me visually introduce you....