Vans Part 3 - TRPSRUS

TRPSRUS - that was the vanity license plate for the last Burk family van. Initially that plate was intended to mean "trips are us", certainly appropriate for a family that has hit the road as often as we have over the years. But when we showed the plate to Taryn, daughter of our frequent vacation partners Robyn and Dave Dyle, she blurted out "Tripasaurus" - and it stuck. The Tripasaurus was our third Starcraft and our sixth van overall (see Vans Part 1 and Part 2 for the story of our earlier vans).

Starcraft #3 served us for over nine years, from August 2003 to this last January. During that time it made over 25 trips to Florida, several of which involved circuitous routes through Austin, Texas, and Washington, D.C. It also made multiple trips to Toronto to visit our Canadian relatives, to Chicago to visit our close friends the Yockys, and one very notable trip to Milwaukee for business, transporting five members of the Detroit IRS Research team to save travel costs (which actually made the trip possible). Of course as with its predecessors, the Tripasaurus shuttled co-workers to lunch and family and friends all over the city too many times to count, and was our primary ride to and from Greenbush since Memorial Day of 2005 when we moved into our new cottage. Through it all this van repeatedly proved its versatility and reliability, maintaining its good looks right to the end.

Let's start with a brief tour. First a few pics of the exterior. In the fourth pic please note the side doors on the driver's side, a feature first found in Starcraft #2. Prior to that, the passenger area could only be accessed from the right side of the van. The extra doors greatly eased loading and unloading.

Now the interior. First a couple shots of the cockpit where Nancy and I spent a gazillion hours driving, chatting, listening to music and audio books, perusing maps and travel guides and just observing and commenting on the passing countryside. Very fond memories.

 

 

Here is a shot of the mid-cabin chairs followed by one of the bench. These areas were largely the domain of the kids on family trips or of guests on lunch and other social outings. The chairs were as comfortable as they look and fully reclined for those mid-flight naps. The bench moved forward or backward to suit the load and folded down into a small but more than adequate place to stretch out and nap. All the windows popped open and had pull-down sun shades. These features were essential to keeping the interior of the van cool while parked in the sun. Can't tell you the number of times the kids heard me say "shades down" as they emptied out of the van for an extended period of time.

Here is another pic that gives a good sense of the roominess of the passenger area.

And finally, the rear cargo area which included under-seat storage and small bins in the wood surface areas on either side. The panel on the right side wall contained the jack (which was never put to use by me - I'm strictly an auto club man).

Then there were the toys. In the dash was a six CD changer as well as the usual AM/FM radio. We also had an iTrip which is a small device that plugs into an iPod and transmits your music over designated frequencies on the FM band. There were a number of 12-volt power ports for running computers, disk men (wow, does that sound so 20th century), portable video players and the like. There were other built-ins, too. Here are pics of the fold-down TV,

the rear CD/DVD player and storage area,

the VCR,

and the control panel for playing music or the TV over the eight-speaker stereo system. Getting there was truly half the fun.

Now that we have completed the tour, here are a few memorable moments from Tripasaurus history.

Shortly after Starcraft #3 joined the family it faced the challenge of moving both our girls to college, Christy for her final term of undergrad and Cathy for her first. This next picture shows me pondering options for wedging in Christy's white floor fan so the load won't shift in flight. Note that the van is in the "one chair" formation, to provide extra space for those college necessities like CD storage and pole lamps.

And here we have the load complete, including the bike and the co-ed.

 

A short few days later, the process was repeated for Cathy. Here is co-ed No. 2 all set to go, including her beloved bowl chair. (For the record, both of these packs were only about a 7 on the 10-point Dad-jita scale.)

 

 

Memorial Day weekend of 2005 provided another opportunity for the Tripasaurus to shine. While the bulk of our move to Wiser Times involved a couple of 24 foot rental vans (a story that will eventually merit its own post), our own moving machine played a key support role. Here are some pics of follow-up trips that helped complete the move. The first shot is of a hand-me-down sofabed from Ann Arbor (provided by Nancy's brother Dave and his wife Barbara) that graced the cottage family room until this past summer. 

 

This next load included a new futon for the sun porch and a gaming/puzzle table for the back common area (in the cardboard boxes), several pieces of wicker furniture procured from a friend, and an octagonal glass-top coffee table (a wedding present from Nancy's grandmother) here relocated to Wiser Times for a second life after being replaced in Grosse Pointe by a new, pie-shaped "lift-top" model. The octagonal table is also known within the family as the "Kody" table as it bears a collection of chew marks provided by our lovable special-needs dog. This customized feature rendered the table ideal for cottage use.

 

This third shot captures a Charlevoix pick-up of a dresser and desk contributed to the cottage by Dick and Winn Crandall, the parents of our dear friend Linda Crandall. My co-engineer on the job was Dave Dyle, shown here turning away just in time to avoid injury during the customary bungy cord tension test. 



Another memorable trip we took in Starcraft #3 was our last family vacation before Cathy moved to Washington D.C. for a job. We started with a visit to Austin to see our newborn granddaughter, Leili Grace, and followed with a visit to Walt Disney World and a four-night cruise to the Carribean. Here's a pic of the girls chilling in the van during the drive. Not much has changed through the years, with Cathy lounging on the bench (her desired spot) and Christy keeping her backpack full of travel toys close at hand in the captain's chairs. Note that both appear to be taking a few shots of their own, for future blogging of their own, perhaps?

 

The next shot shows Nancy back at the wheel, enjoying the countryside.

And a self-pic of me, just happy to be included.

 

Here's a shot of me pulling out those items we needed for the cruise portion of the trip. Note the S.S. Disney Wonder in the background (a vessel that will be covered in more detail in a future post).



And one last shot of this trip outside of our Disney's Old Key West vacation home, fully loaded for the trip back to Michigan. This pack included a rare garment bag resting neatly atop the load. It contained dress clothes for the dinners on the cruise, attire not often required on Burk family vacations.

A couple of months later The Tripasaurus was pressed into service for its biggest move job ever - relocating Cathy to Alexandria, Virginia, for her new job with the U.S. Patent Office. First, here are a couple of shots of the items to be moved, queued up in our garage.

 

 

Next a few action shots of the pack in process. First, sizing up the job.

 

 

Then, "big rocks first".



 

 

Followed by "pack to the hole".

 

 

In this shot notice the nesting of one of the "detached" captain's chairs in with the load. Christy rode with Cathy in Cathy's car for the ride to Alexandria. But as Christy was returning to Grosse Pointe with Nancy and me, we had to fit the chair in with the pack so Christy would have a seat for the ride home. Moving kids away from home can be tricky :-)

 

 

 

And the completed job ready for departure, first from the driver's seat looking back,

 

 

and then from the rear. This puppy was pretty much an 11 on the 10-point scale.

 

Fortunately, the load rode just fine to Virginia where everything but the chair and the blue bag shown at the bottom right (full of emergency bungy cords) was deposited into Cathy's new apartment.

This was actually the second time we abandoned one of our kids in a strange and far away place. The first was in 1998 when we helped Ted move (in Starcraft #1) to his first job in Dallas, Texas. Oddly, very few pictures were taken of that trip and none of the van load. Perhaps we were in shock the whole way from separation anxiety. Or it could have been the fact that every day we were in Dallas that trip the temperature was over 100 degrees.

 

To round out our saga of Burk family vans, here are a few more shots of Starcraft #3 in typical service. First, some shots of memorable packing challenges. This first one is of yet another Florida trip, showing the typical gear.

This one is of a load out to Wiser Times upgrading beds and shuttling extra coolers for one of our Labor Day Listening Room get-togethers.

And a pic of what was traditionally the most difficult pack each year - Christmas - with all our gear and Santa's booty to boot. (There's a story behind the Styrofoam moldings included in this pack, but it'll cost you a cocktail to hear it. Maybe some evening around a beach fire.)

 

 

Here's a pic of the old man, still blowing up floaties with a two-ton air pump and a lawn chair, this time at Wiser Times. It's good to have a niche.

 

 

And one of me and my good friend Jim Wyatt effecting repairs to the van's TV.

 

 

Here's a series of pics of Jim and me loading my new canoe on the roof for the 25 mile trip from Wal-Mart to Wiser Times. What the pictures don't capture is the heckling we were taking from a local Tawas fellow pointing out that the bungy cords wouldn't work and we'd be scraping the remains of the canoe off US 23 within a mile. In the third pic please note Jim's bride Mary to the far left, wondering if the guy from Tawas might just have a point. But as noted in a previous post, bungy cords are my thing. We made it just fine.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a shot of Starcraft #3 by the side of the road during one of our fall color trips with the Dyles, patiently waiting (as is Nancy) for a just a few more tree pictures to be snapped.

 

 

Finally, some shots of the Tripasaurus in repose, recharging its batteries for the next Burk family assignment - in winter at Wiser Times,

 

 

in its most frequent resting place at the end of our driveway in Grosse Pointe,

 

 

and in what was probably its favorite spot to catch its breath, at the curb in a rest area, with a couple of close friends.

 

 

So there you have it. Twenty-three years of life in the cruise lane.

 

We're out of the van business now, but still very much into the road and cross-country travel in our new Traverse. So to the Tripasaurus and its predecessors, thanks for all the memories. And to everyone else, see you next trip.

 

 

Vans Part 2 - Starcraft

This post is a follow-up to Vans Part 1 - The Tiara Years and covers our move to Starcraft beginning in 1997. Vans Part 1 and the earlier Road Trip - An Expected Journey recount our early van ownership days and the general nature of Burk family road trips. Here I continue the story.

As noted in the previous post, our first three vans were Tiara conversions. They were luxurious in appointments and elegant to behold. But in the late '90s Tiara's were becoming hard to find. Starcraft, on the other hand, was going strong. So we followed the market. Our first Starcraft (and fourth van overall) came with upgraded features and GM's sleek new look. To start us off here is a customary fam/van shot of Starcraft #1 featuring the stylish shorts/white socks/deck shoes look clearly indicating that my heritage is rooted in someplace other than "The Pointes".

 

Starcraft #1 didn't have any extended, cross-country trips like Tiara #2 (out west) or Tiara #3 (New England), but it did yeoman work on our frequent vacation trips to Florida. Here is a shot of this mean road machine (the usual 7-liter V8 with overdrive) loaded for the road including golf clubs on the roof. Note the upgraded roof rack (the Tiara racks were not as sturdy), the bigger door and rear bench windows and the more aerodynamic front end. GM introduced this new body style in 1997. The lower profile on the front door windows and the windshield gave the big vans the driving feel of a minivan and much better road visibility. On the interior, this van had all the usual appointments like reading lamps, rear music and air conditioning, and plush leather seats, as well as our first built-in TV and VCR located in a console between the front captain's chairs. It was slick.

 

Here are a couple of action shots taken during a departure from one of our favorite spots - the Old Key West resort at Walt Disney World. In this first one Cathy is displaying how to use your head when toting a week's worth of luggage and trip toys from the condo to the loading area.

In this next shot I am demonstrating the refined technique of securing items to the roof rack. Can you say bungy cord? By the way, on the 10-point Dad-jita scale of packing difficulty (introduced in Vans Part 1), any load that requires the use of a roof rack is an automatic 10. (It should be noted here that there are two schools of thought on tieing things down to a roof rack - rope and bungy cords. While it's true that improperly applied bungy cords can be a hazard, in the hands of a master the bungy cords are superior.)

Next are a couple of shots of the kids taken during a rest stop. Both are of the "girls in chairs, boys on the bench" formation. These shots also provide a glimpse into the typical conversion van interior trim package. In the first, note the window cornices. Nested behind them were ambient lighting and pull-down sunshades. In the second shot you can just make out a portion of the ceiling panel which also contained subdued lighting. With a van full of people at night it was always nice to be able to see who you were talking to without the glare of the brighter reading lights. And the shades offered the option of privacy when you needed it (napping on the road or quick-changing into your golf togs in the course parking lot :-)

 

And just so you know, the road wasn't always sunshine and blue skies. It was inevitable that on some winter trips to Florida we would return to, well, winter. But as I recall there were only two times that we actually had to battle bad snow storms. The first was early in the '90s. For that one we had to take unscheduled refuge in a motel in Berea, Kentucky, as I-75 was closed a few miles further up the road. The highway was clear the next day, and we made it home just fine. 

 

We ran into the second storm on the way home from our Christmas 2000 trip. I still have this vivid memory of slip-sliding through Toledo on icy roads at 30 miles an hour - the freeway packed with every other family who had gone south for the holidays trying to get home. In that situation it was nice to have a warm, comfy environment in which to literally "ride" out the storm. It was also somewhat reassuring that except for the occasional 18-wheeler, we were the biggest vehicle on the road should someone start playing bumper cars. Here are a couple of shots of Starcraft #1 earning its keep. The first taking a brief respite in a northern Ohio rest area, and the second in our own driveway, back home safe and sound.

 



Here's an interesting pic that opened a whole new chapter in vanning for the Burks - moving kids to and from college, and eventually to other faraway places. This shot is of Christy all loaded up and ready to go to MSU in 1999. Much more on this issue a little later on in the saga.

 

 

And one last shot of Starcraft #1 in one of its favorite spots. Have I mentioned that these big vans hate to pass a gas station?

I think this might be a good time to mention a couple of other vans that may have been inspired by exposure to the Burk fleet. The Chevy high-top gem shown below belonged to my parents who kept it for a number of years. It made many trips back and forth to the Sunshine State during my parents' "snow bird" years in the '90s, finally ending its days in Florida after playing a major role in their permanent move south in 2001. This pic was taken at Disney's Old Key West circa 1998.

My parents' van also played a brief but significant role in our own travel history. In 1993 after several years of driving to Florida, our girls started complaining about the long drives. They pointed to some of their friends who got to fly on their vacations. So Nancy and I agreed to give the little darlings the "jet" experience by flying down to Florida for our usual spring break trip. During that trip we borrowed my parents' van for a few days and made our very first visit to our friends the Dyles' condo on Captiva Island, a beautiful spot that we have visited many times since. And while we considered the jet trip a success, we all felt worn out from dragging our luggage (and each other) through too many airports. This resulted in a renewal of our appreciation of the luxury, convenience and freedom of van travel (you can bring anything you want instead of just what you can carry) despite the extra hours on the road. We've never looked back.

One other van of note is pictured below. This was a brief and not so successful experiement by our friends the Dyles who for years have been minivan loyalists. As a Chrysler employee, Dave Dyle had a chance to request a full size van as one of his company lease vehicles, so he did in the late '90s. This Dodge model was the result. Unfortunately, Dave was unable to get the van with all of the creature comforts he wanted (and had grown accustomed to through familiarity with our vans).  This led to some disappointment and eventual disregard of what came to be called "The Whale", and the Dyles hurried back to their beloved Dodge minivans as soon as they could. This pic was taken as The Whale cruised into Captiva during Christmas break in 1998.

But back to the saga. In 2001 it was time for the Burks to change rides again. We loved the first Starcraft so much, we re-upped. Starcraft #2 was very similar to its predecessor, only blue. And it had two new features that elevated our van experience to even higher levels. The first was an airline-style fold down TV in the center ceiling panel, with a VCR mounted in the rear bench seating area. This made for much easier viewing than with the floor-based models. The second and most significant feature was that it was our first 8-door van with three doors on each side plus the usual two in the rear. Having primary responsibility for loading and unloading the van, this made for way easier access to those valuable extra spaces behind the front and mid-cabin seats. It also made it easier for passengers to load and unload (and when hurrying back to work from Mexican Town with lunch-bunchers jammed into every seat, each second counted).

Unfortunately, despite its good looks and refinements, Starcraft #2 was our least photographed van. It did perform the usual workload of Florida road trips and local shuttling with reliability and distinction, but did so it would seem under the radar. Perhaps we were taking our poor fifth van for granted. However, there are some pics. Here is the usual fam/van shot with the kids.

 

And an action shot. This one of us half-way packed for Christy's return to MSU in 2001.

 

 

Finally, a classic of the van fully loaded in my parents' driveway in Zephyrhills, Florida, ready for the return trip home. This pack was a 10, of course, given the roof rack rule.

 

 

We have now covered our first five vans and 14 years, from 1989 to the summer of 2003. For the final chapter of the story we will need to go to a Part 3, which will feature our last and best van, also a Starcraft, that we rode for over 10 years - The "Tripasaurus".

 

Until then.