We Got a New Car

Our van was having some issues and seeming like it was going to be needing some major work soon, so we decided it was best to get a different vehicle. Since we would like to be able to tow things in the future, we went away from a minivan and looked at Ford Flexes. Also, every minivan we've had has had issues with the passenger side slider door, leaving us with only 1 door for the kids to use. We ended up with a 2010 Ford Flex with seating for 6 and a DVD player. Some Flexes have seating for 7, but then the middle seat has to fold forward to access the back row of seats and as we only need 6 seats, we thought it would be easier overall to go with the captain's chairs for the middle row. We bought it on Tuesday, but didn't bring it home as we'd forgotten the plate and they were going to fix a few things for us. We went back the next day to get it and then left for Spring Break on Friday. It is nice to have regular doors for the ease of opening and closing for the kids, but I do miss being able to push the slider door button on the key fob and having the door open when I have my hands full.

A Bench Seat for Blueberry

We went to the junk yard on Tuesday to look for a "new" bench seat for the back of the van. A couple of the vans the right style had "Stow and Go" seats which didn't work for our van. The only other one left had a split bench. It was listed for $85 for each side, but we got it for $100 total. I washed them on Wednesday and now we're good to go!

The seats look a little blotchy from being washed/wet.

The original seats are more gray and the "new" one is more tan. But they work for a place to put the butts!

All ready to go!

Blueberry

With the soon to be arrival of Andrew, we needed to get a larger vehicle as we can only squeeze the 3 carseats into the Stratus we have. We have been keeping our eyes open for inexpensive vans and when my sister, Amy mentioned they had gotten a "new" vehicle at an auction, we started looking into that option. We went to a State Surplus auction on Saturday to try and get a vehicle. They were going for more than we were hoping for and bid on 2 different vans, both of which sold for the next bid after we stopped. We decided to go a little higher and won the next van we tried for.




It is a 2002 Dodge Caravan. It has been dubbed "Blueberry"













It is a very basic model without power locks or windows. The only way to open the rear liftgate is with the key.











It does have a cassette player and cruise control.



















It only had the middle bench seat, so it currently only seats 4.
















The middle seat can be all the way to the left or to the right. Since the tracks are the same in both the middle and rear positions, we assumed that the middle seat could be moved back the same way that we had seen some vans with the rear seat moved forward. (we were wrong!) We are going to try and get a rear seat at a junk yard.