Saturday, September 10, 2011

Last show for our old van!

This is the last show for our old Dodge conversion van. I have no idea how many shows we have done with this reliable old workhorse, but she has served us well. A few breakdowns, but nothing serious, and if our mechanic hadn't told us that the frame is rusting out, and she won't make it through another winter, we'd be planning a lot more shows with her. It has been especially nice having no car payment for the past 5 years or so! Her gas mileage is abysmal - about 12.5 miles to the gallon, and she qualified for the Cash for Clunkers program a while back, but we figured that we could buy a lot of gas for a car payment. The car payment on the new Dodge Grand Caravan we have agreed to buy next week will buy somewhere between 97 and 158 gallons per month depending on which financing deal we choose, and where gas prices go? The new mini-van will go over twice as far on a gallon of gas, and set-up and tear down should be a bit easier because with less space in the van, we will have to choose more carefully what we load in to take to a show!
So goodbye to our old friend. We'll reinstall the seats we took out within 3 days of getting her home back in 1991 - they are brand new after sitting in the garage for 10 years. (The rest of this big conversion van never did get into our garage!) On Thursday, we'll take her back to the car dealer where we got her, and buy our third car from our favorite car salesman who just sells us a car without any %$*&^@* ! Many thanks to Jim Bentley who will probably be retired by the time we have to face car buying again?
Above - the empty booth, set-up and ready to populate with wonderful and colorful pieces ranging from $1 to about $375, with most items under $50! Stop by the Clothesline show today or tomorrow, and say goodbye to our old van, and get a good buy on some great artwork!

1 comment:

Pat said...

We are facing the same decision. Yep, those years without a car payment are glorious. Deciding between a smaller rig and getting a small trailer or another mini van. I'll think about it tomorrow. Have a great show!