Diary of a Mad Scientist

I got myself a new vehicle- a 1998 GMC Savana, same year as the boyfriend’s van, the problematic one that I drove across the country exactly two summers ago at the beginning of this blog. My new van is a passenger model, his was the more common cargo version.

Mine:

His: (before the stomper truck modifications)

I expect to have the same fun with Check Engine Light codes and transmission issues and touchy finicky fuel system sensors. These engines have many known drawbacks, but I’m getting it (and not another 1990s van) for one reason over a comparable 1990’s Ford Powerstroke- fuel economy is marginally better. I would imagine that emissions would be better also, just because it consumes much less fuel, although I haven’t looked at any numbers to compare.

My old van was a great deal, but it’s from 1987, and going down the road I can definitely smell french fries inside the vehicle. I started to get paranoid about what it meant to be getting gassed by exhaust particulates like that- diesel, or vegetable oil based, I would prefer not to smell it at all. It was really faint, and I think few people would even notice, but it’s just that 1980s van thing.

The GMC’s on the other hand, barely have an odor even when running on petroleum diesel. There been so many times over the past two years been so jealous of Tom’s 1998 van for all these reasons. And now I have one of my very own.

This one’s really high mileage, and I had to go out to the East Coast to get it. Supposedly it’s got a rebuilt engine, I’m hoping to track down the previous owner while I’m here and confirm that actually the case. I’m not holding my breath, there are absolute no mechanical records with this thing.

I bought it at the beginning of the summer, and spent a couple months, try to figure out how it was going to get to California. I really don’t need it in California, the whole point of this vehicle is to do a couple of East Coast tours, and to have it serve as an RV so my life would take less of a beating while traveling for the classes. I was originally going to register the paperwork in California, then mail the plates to someone in Boston who was going to borrow it until I went on a tour.

And bureaucracy set in. It turns out that Massachusetts does not give temporary plates or trip permits. In California refuses to register anything from out-of-state without actually doing a physical VIN inspection first. Oops. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. Both states said ’surely the other state can do something, my hands are tied’. I really didn’t want to spend money on getting it towed out on a car carrier, just to register it, and promptly drive it right back.

And, of course, in the middle of the summer when I was trying to figure this out, I had a conference organized, and the van was the last thing on my mind at that point. At one point, a really good friend of mine who has been my partner in mystery illness (we got sick at the same time, and years later got diagnosed with chronic Lyme at the same exact time independently of each other and by different doctors - absolutely freaking weird), was moving cross country to Massachusetts, and we were trying to arrange how she could pick me up after the conference so that we could do a long gimpy drive to the East Coast and process everything we’ve learned in the past few years of being sick. That would’ve been a really good growth opportunity I think. Unfortunately, her schedule with school orientation didn’t allow her to wait till after the conference to get me, but the idea of definitely put the bug in my ear about driving across country for fun this time.

So I scheduled some classes for a month later, and gritted my teeth in anticipation of the new, stricter airport security hell, and flew out to teach in Boston, register it in another state, and then drive the vehicle back. I was able to convince the boyfriend to fly out and make a vacation of the drive back. Which is something I’ve been wanting to do the whole time we been together- a longish road trip. We’re going to start out in New England, then go down to the southeast, then try to ignore the Midwest on our way back.

I must say I’m so incredibly excited about having this thing. The fact that we have ‘his and hers vans’ (they’re the same year model) is really awesome- he hasn’t really converted his to an RV yet, although that’s the ultimate goal, and I’ll be starting on that this fall. So are passing these great e-mails back and forth (he’s not out here on the East Coast yet) talking about power systems, and auxiliary fuel tanks, and security, and making folding beds and counter space, and how best to arrange things. It’s going to be so fun doing the full conversion. Ultimately, it’s still not the vehicle and I want, but I can’t afford the Sprinter that I want.

The boyfriend has spent the last two years getting his van converted to four-wheel-drive (it can be done piece by piece, so it hasn’t been on blocks the whole time or anything). It started as a somewhat modest project, but he paid a mechanic/off-road enthusiast friend of his to do the work, and the friend has been trying to get into the business of doing these conversions and other custom four-wheel-drive work for a while now. In the process, the friend convinced Tom to let him turn the vehicle into a showcase project for the friend’s skills. At this point, it looks like a big monster redneck truck, cargo van edition- giant stomper Big Mud Tires, a lot more lift than Tom would have wanted originally, and all kinds of burly he-man suspension metal showing. And it’s now something like 10 feet tall. Tom is one of the most unassuming, non-show-offish guys you’ll meet, and the fact that he now drives his giant vehicle that turns heads left and right, really cracks me up. He doesn’t seem too comfortable with it. We were driving around the ghetto right before I left and guys were pointing and smiling (not as in laughing at, but as in really impressed, and smiling). It’s pretty funny.