The Venture will venture no further

We bought a used Chevy Venture minivan a few years ago; I won't say from whom, because I don't want them to feel badly. (Not that it matters; these folks don't read this blog, and besides which, it's really not their fault that the van got old, because that's what vehicles eventually do). But this poor dog of a family conveyance was a money pit on wheels from the get-go.

Quite often wherever you had to get, you just didn't end up going, not without returning home to get another vehicle anyway, or having to be rescued en route to somewhere. It beat its own record for untimely breakdowns once when I picked it up from the repair shop in Town A, and drove about ten minutes (en route to Town B, 30 minutes away) and something ELSE went wrong (not the thing that was wrong when it was in the shop). It ended up in yet another repair shop in Town B. (Luckily, several relatives live there, so I wasn't entirely stranded and alone as I waited for Mr. P. to come rescue the kids and me.)

My last breakdown (or ahem, the van's) occurred on Thursday last. Two gaskets were blown, one in the Venture and one in yours truly. We were informed it will cost over $2000 to repair--far far more than the van is worth if we sold it for cash. So it's time for the Venture to venture to minivan heaven (or more likely, Auto Wreckers 'n Spare Parts purgatory).

It rots to be forced to buy another vehicle right now; heaven only knows what this will do to my kitchen reno budget. You can't drive kids to music lessons in a dishwasher.
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