Vans Part 1 - The Tiara Years

The Burk family van era has come to an end, after over 23 years. And when I say van - I mean van. Big. Tricked out. Homey. Glorious. We had six different full-size conversion vans from late '89 through this January when we sold our last van, a Starcraft GMC Savanah that we had cruised in for 9 years and over 175,000 miles. The man who bought it had been looking high and low for just such a vehicle to chauffeur his children and grandchildren around in for the next few years. He was very happy to find ours, which is still in excellent condition. We were glad to send our baby to a good home. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's take it from the beginning.

Our path to the land of big vans was not a smooth or short one. It all started with a weekend in the early '80s when I tried to wedge two adults, a one-year old in a car seat, a playpen, a baby swing, an umbroller (remember those), two suitcases, a weekend's worth of the necessary baby maintenance supplies, and a dog - all into a hatchback Chevette. It was brutal. Upon our return from the trip we marched into the local Oldsmobile dealer and bought the biggest station wagon they had - a 1981 Delta 88 diesel. But as the family grew and the dogs got bigger, even the Olds wagon wasn't sufficient. Eventually, we went van hunting.

We looked at minivans first. They're nice, and in general have nearly as much luggage space as a big van (that is unless you start removing seats). But being children of the '60s, my Bride and I place a great value on comfort. And the thing about big vans is that they are all about creature comforts. Most of the extra room is dedicated to big seats and space to stretch out. So the die was cast.

In the late '80s big vans were, well, big. You could find them everywhere. We looked at several dealerships and found two excellent possibilities. After an unusual but welcome bidding war between the two salesmen involved, we settled on our first van - a 1989 Chevy Tiara. Here is a shot of our first Tiara during a family visit to Florida in 1990 (I think the grimace on Ted's face has something to do with him not being warned of the photo op in advance so he could find louder shorts).  

Tiara #1 had a black and mauve exterior (very '80s) with a velvet-like mauve interior. As with all of our later vans, this one had the customary conversion seating arrangement of four captain's chairs and a rear bench that folded down into a bed. It also had rear air and heat, airplane reading lights, a removable wooden table, three panoramic-view side windows and drapery-style window treatments. A favorite feature of this van was that all the captain's chairs rotated 180 degrees (this feature was not available in later models due to meddlesome auto safety standards).

As I noted in my earlier post Road Trip - An Expected Journey, the primary job of all our vans was to provide luxury transportation for our frequent trips up and down and across the country. With only infrequent inconveniences, all six of our vans performed this duty in outstanding fashion. But there were local roles for these "living rooms on wheels", too. These including trucking the kids around on family outings, transporting the east side members of our social network to west side events, and in the mid-late '90s supporting the weekly Lunch Bunch outings to Mexican Town, to name just a few. In short, big vans grew into one of our family's defining characteristics.

Here are a few more shots of Tiara #1. The first is as it sits quietly next to a little cabin in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, waiting for the day's journey to get underway. We stayed in this quaint and cozy cabin a couple of nights on the way back from our 1991 spring break trip to Florida. It was also where we introduced our kids to breakfasts of leftover pizza (which they claimed was the coolest part of the trip).

 

These next three shots are of what came to be typical poses of the kids enjoying the road, nestling in with a favorite book or activity as we cruised through the countryside. Here's Cathy with a craft activity (Mozaic Tiles), Ted deep into a Stephen King novel (The Stand, perhaps) and Christy, who appears to be somewhat put out by an interruption to her examination of the latest middle school yearbook.

At the wheel is Nancy, my favorite place for her to ride :-) Note the wood trim around the instrument array, typical of the early vans

And a rare shot of me riding in the back, seat rotated to face the rear, taking careful note of where we've been (and in close proximity to any passengers who might need assistance or....parenting. Remember, these were the early years).

Here is a final shot of this first van, but one of my favorites. This pic captured our daughters with the Dyle kids, Taryn and Scott, on the ride home from an afternoon outing at a local sledding hill. Sort of "van as warming house". Those rosy cheeks were well-earned. This shot also illustrates a big van's capacity for four riders (of appropriate girth) on the back bench. This was to be a common scene on multiple-family outings for years.

In 1993 our lease was up, and it was time to move on. We were so happy with the Tiara that we got another one - Tiara #2. It was Spartan green with silver and gold trim and grey velvet interior. It even had opera lights. Here is an early pic from a weekend trip to Petosky. I used to get compliments from other travelers (the interstate fast-food crowd) on how snazzy this van looked.

Tiara #2 had its share of trips to the Sunshine State, but it's claim to fame was our 19-day trip out west to canyon country in 1995. I will cover the full detail of that trip in a later post, but here are a few shots of the van out west. The first is serving as a backdrop for the family during a stop off at the Painted Desert.

And here are a couple of shots of the girls in their usual van cruiser mode. Notice the casual use of lap and shoulder belts. Must have been during a stop :-(  In the first pic you can just make out Ted's elbow as he lounges on the back bench. Overtime, the kids actually worked out their own pecking order of who got the bench when and for how long, and who would be relegated to a lowly captain's chair. But the system seemed to work as we had hardly any "he/she touched me" incidents and never as I recall had to "pull this van over" to reestablish order. I took it for granted at the time, but I have to say that through all the years the kids turned out to be excellent travelers. I'm sure the big vans contributed greatly to this undervalued achievement.

Of course, one of the regular Dad jobs on the long trips was unloading and then reloading the van at each stop. If you've ever chaperoned a school trip or taken a bus tour, you have the flavor of how this activity works. Bags packed and on the tarmac 15 minutes before scheduled departure. Here are a couple of typical shots of first the challenge, then the solution, at a stop in South Dakota. Despite the duration of this trip, the pack was actually relatively light, rating only about a 7 on the 10-point "Dad-jita" (the second d is silent) packing difficulty scale.

And here's a bonus shot from the out-west trip. If you have seen the movie Independence Day, you should remember this custom vacation vehicle (or mobile apartment - not sure which). We saw it in a rest area parking lot in Arizona in 1995. When the movie was released the following year, we picked this gem out right away. It appears in a couple of the scenes where the fleet of RVs is crossing the desert to escape the aliens. Fun.

Finally, a couple of Tiara #2 shots in everyday service. In the first the van is quietly biding its time until the return trip after conveying a gaggle of pre-teens to a birthday swim and picnic at the Grosse Pointe Woods city park (which we keep in St. Clair Shores, by the way - long story). From left to right we have Christy (heavily engaged in conversation with her inner self), Molly and Jenna (part of Cathy's inner circle), Nancy-in-charge, Taryn Dyle, Cathy (the birthday girl) and Francesca (the rest of the inner circle).

This last shot of Tiara #2 could have been taken with any of the vans. A common activity for Dad on a family visit to the cottage (in this shot, Avon Rae at Ipperwash Beach) was to inflate a vast array of water toys, known in the trade as floaties. What better way to meet this critical responsibility than with a two-ton, gasoline-powered air pump (note the cord running out of the back of the van), a lawn chair, and a beer (see the foreground). Somebody had to do it.

In 1995 we leased another Tiara - #3. At that time van conversions were getting a little harder to find, especially Tiaras. When we were ready to trade, there were actually only two on the lot that met our "minimum" requirements. We took the blue one. It was slightly less fancy than Tiara #2 but had the basics we had come to expect and enjoy in our vans. Here is an early shot of Tiara #3 on yet another visit to Florida. The young lady second from the right is my grandmother, a spry 92 at the time. Notice the stylish (not) whitewalls (on the van, not my grandmother).

Tiara #3's major contribution to the Burk vacation saga was our 17-day trip to New England in 1997. This was another memorable tour covering mountains, gorges, lobsters, Plymouth Rock and Christy's 16th birthday, all of which will be covered in detail in a future post. But here are a few shots of Tiara #3 in action out east. This first one is another in the series of fam/van shots, taken in Syracuse on our way to Maine. The second captures the previously mentioned morning pack ritual a couple of days later in the trip (yes, this was the "necessary" gear typically schlepped in and out of the hotel for - just one night).

The interior shot below (somewhat washed out by Cathy's effervescent personality) is noteworthy for a couple of reasons. The first is that it shows (just barely) the pockets on the back of the captain's chairs, this one stuffed with a water bottle. One of the fun activities upon completion of any extended trip in the van was the exploration of these pockets to see just what the kids had seen fit to cram into them during their road time. Often items were recovered that certain parties were sure had been forgotten or lost, along with a wide variety of half-eaten foodstuffs. 

 

The second item of interest is the combination TV/VCR located on the floor between the forward captain's chairs. In later vans this essential kid-management equipment was part of the conversion package. But as none of the Tiaras came with TVs or VCRs, we always installed suitable systems for the long trips. The device pictured here had until only recently enjoyed a second life as the TV in the Wiser Times game room. However, it has since been retired (but might still be on the shelves of the St. Clair Shores Salvation Army store, where it was last seen).

And one last shot of Tiara #3, perhaps the least grand of all the Burk vans but fondly remembered just the same, sitting smartly at the curb surrounded by the Green Mountains, in all of its white-walled glory.

By the time 1997 rolled around and we were looking for our next van, Tiaras were no longer to be found. At least no one around Detroit was carrying them. So with a heavy heart but an open mind, we searched for a suitable replacement and discovered Starcraft. But that's a story for Part 2 of this chronicle. For now, I leave you with the memories of the early years, and those beautiful Tiara vans.