The "Purple Nurple" hit 200,000 miles!

Our van just rolled over to 200,000 miles this past Wednesday.

It’s old. It isn’t fancy—has no bells or whistles. And, it’s purple (otherwise known as the purple nurple in our family). We bought the van from a government auction when Calder was just a baby. Calder is now almost 9 yrs old. That’s an awful long time to own a vehicle.

We paid a little less than $7,000 for it. Quite the bargain, but at the time I thought it was going to bankrupt us. It was more than we had ever paid for a vehicle—it makes me laugh now. But I will tell you, our return has been a hundred fold on this van.

Sure, when I want to talk to another car that pulls up along the passenger side of the van, I have to unbuckle, lean across the seats and manually roll down the window. Sure, when I want to make sure all the doors are locked, I have to push down (yes, push down with my finger) each lock. My vans doors do not magically slide open or close; the windows are stationary on those doors as well; one door is actually broken and will not stay completely open on its own; it’s missing a visor (Caden hung on it when he was five and busted it off); the chairs will not recline; the outside of the van is scratched up (all my fault, but if you saw our driveway and garage system, you would completely understand). Let’s just say, there’s a whole lot wrong with it.

But there’s been a whole lot right with it as well. We hardly have had to put a lot of money into it. The sucker just keeps going and going. It has been to Canada, Texas (2 or 3 times), California a number of times and Arizona as well. Obviously, we have put a lot of miles on it. It has been  (and still is) a very good van. We have had a lot of wonderful traveling memories with this van.

200,000 miles—WOW! That’s a lot. Since Wednesday, I have already added another 70 miles or so to it.

So how many miles can a vehicle go? It’s like how many licks until you get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop? Does anyone know. Will this be the year  I get a new van?  Who knows?

The way this sucker is going, I will be blogging about it when it reaches 300,000 miles. (Does that even happen?)

 

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