Wheels!

After two months of not having a wheels of our own, our van is repaired and ready to go!

In early January, Tom and Matt were on their way home from Prague, when the van stopped working and made a strange noise. Our friend, JL met them on the highway and towed them to Vlasim.

Our repairman said that it had gasoline in the engine and that was why it stopped working! Our van is diesel and hadn't been filled recently and had been driven a couple hundred kilometers since the last fill-up, so this seemed strange to us. We still haven't figured out the mystery, but nevertheless, the motor was shot.

We decided that the van might be worth something resale for parts and we would pursue purchasing a 9 passenger Volkswagen Transporter. Well, after waiting a month and getting no interested parties, we decided it was worth more to us even with the broken door and other "quirks"and so we had the motor replaced. It took several weeks, but our repairman found a different motor.

So, after months of no vehicle, Tom went and picked up our van this morning! We are glad to have wheels again. Yes, we saved money on gas and slowed down our lives a bit because of the lack of a vehicle. All in all, it wasn't a horrible experience, just a bit frustrating at times.

We are still in the process of getting another van from Germany, the 9 passenger Transporter. We have a friend in town who purchases cars from Germany and brings them in to Czech. So, he and Tom have a few possibilities bookmarked on-line. We are planning on Tom taking a trip to Germany with F soon to locate another van for us. That will make us a 2 car family for the first time in our married lives!

We are SO thankful to our friends the L family who loaned their car to us for long trips and short and were available often to just let us use the car for a trip to the dr. or to school. Also the B family who loaned their car for shopping trips two times.

So, to celebrate the "new" van, we are driving to Brno on Wednesday to meet the Pletts at the Tutankhamen exhibit. YEAH!