Goodbye Big Red... Hello Goldie

A few days ago I posted about the death of our Buick. Our mechanic said that Big Red (Ford 15 passenger van) was soon to follow. What a bummer! Not only were both vehicles dying at the same time but we have grown quite attached to Big Red. About 8 years ago we searched for the right van for our family. We wanted LOTS of room. We needed room to seat the 8 of us and whatever neighborhood kids we could take along to Church. We searched all over Colorado Springs and could not find the one we liked. Finally Colin found the perfect one... But it was not in Colorado. We loaded up the kids and took a drive to Shawnee, OK where we found Big Red at Joe Cooper Ford. We all fell in love with the Big Red Bus.

We drove the van home and soon it was part of the Shuler family. It has taken us to many Church gatherings and many fun trips with friends and family. We have loaded him up to the ceiling with camping gear and headed to the mountains for some much needed R & R. He became the hauler of all our sound equipment to all of our singings around Phoenix and out of state. Plenty of room for everything. Thursday was a sad day in the Shuler household... For it was the day we said goodbye to Big Red...



But here's rest of the story... It does have a happy ending. Let me back track just a little.
After our mechanic had told us that we needed to start looking for a new vehicle, we thought we had a little more time. So we decided we would just drive Big Red a little longer and save some more money for a larger down payment on a van at a later date. We had already talked to the Honda dealer, but when they called back I told them we weren't ready and to check back with us in a couple months.

Wednesday, on the way home form work, Colin called and said, "The van is dying... I can't drive over 30 mph." Oh great! What now? When he got home we talked and then the whole family gathered in the living room and began to pray for God's direction. This was something we had never faced before... We have been working so diligently to be completely debt free and being very careful how we spend our money. Making a MAJOR purchase like this was flurbing me out BIG TIME! We prayed and I cried. It was not one hour after praying that the phone rang and it was the Honda dealer again. Colin talked to them and we planned on going over to see what they could do for us the next day... Through much talking and negotiating we now are the proud owner of a 2010 Honda Odyssey... It only had 7 miles on it when it came off the truck that morning...

Meet Goldie...

Now here's the really fun part of the story... Thursday, after Colin got off of work I met him at the Honda dealership, with the help of Paul (my father-in-law). Colin had already been there for a while before we showed up. He was already looking at Goldie. I came around the van and a gentleman approached me, put out his hand to shake mine and said, "Hi, I'm Jason". I looked up at his face and said the first thing that popped into my head, which was, "Whoa... You look like John Elway"... He smiled and said, "I hear that a lot". Now this is really ironic. When we lived in Colorado I always said I was going to buy my next vehicle from John Elway... He has ALWAYS been my favorite! This was weird.

So, after the deal was made and the van was purchased we put a #7 jersey on Jason and took a picture with our new van and John Elway... I mean Jason...

This is as close as I'm ever gonna get to John Elway...

Pretty cool, huh?
It is hard to get used to not having a huge red
van... It's hard to find the van in the Walmart
parking lot now. It is hard for people to spot
us going down the road. Some of the people
at Chick-Fil-A said that it wasn't a "Shuler" van.
It was more of a "Soccer Mom" van. Well, we
are NOT soccer people. We'll get used to it and
so will everyone else. We are thankful for God's
help and direction. We now have a reliable
vehicle to last us for many years and we have
A LOT of memories to create with Goldie...