The 15 Passenger Van Adventure

It's been a while since I've had an urban bus adventure to write about, but this experience was certainly worth recording.  My husband and I are part of a small group at our church who meet regularly throughout the week.  Our church calls groups like these Lifegroups because you bond together and live life together.  My husband and I have spent the past year with the same individuals in our Lifegroup and have enjoyed many adventures with these people we consider very good friends.  However, we had never quite experienced an adventure like the one we had one Tuesday night in a very old, very dilapidated 15 passenger van.

It all began with a dream.  One girl had a dream of spending time with her closest friends on a trip in a 15 passenger van.  Just think of the good times and laughter that would ensue when 15 of your best buds were all crammed into a single elongated tube with wheels for any extended length of time!  She knew this would be an experience of a lifetime and, so, she set out to make it happen.  She searched and waited for the opportunity to present itself, and at last it did.  It was perfect!  A member of the group was flying home from an extended trip away and her flight was landing on the very night the group normally got together.  How exciting would it be for everyone to drive down together to surprise her and pick her up at the airport?!  The 40 minute trip there would be filled with the anticipation of surprising the home-bound girl, and the trip back would be filled with her filling us in on her adventures away.  This was the chance for an epic 15 passenger van adventure!  If only we had known how epic it would be...

Plans were put in place, sings were made, meeting places were arranges, and the day finally arrived.  The plan was to meet at one house and head to the airport from there.  One girl had told the friend flying in that she was going to pick her up from the airport, of course leaving out the detail about the 13 other people coming with her.  Everyone arrived at the house just after 5:00 p.m.  Our first inkling of trouble was the arrival of the van.  This thing looked like prayer was holding it together and the grace of God was keeping it running.  The paint was faded and peeling and there was a ring of rust around the bottom so thick it made you wonder if the bottom of the van was going to fall out at any moment.  It was certainly an old van that had seen better days.  Several people were visibly skeptical of the trustworthiness of our vehicle of choice.  Could we make it all the way to the airport and back in this van?  Our faithful leader assured us we could and scolded us for being quick to shy away from a "true adventure".  The girl who arranged for all this offered a test drive around the block for anyone who was unsure and wanted to do further research before making a decision.  This was quickly vetoed by our leader; she was sure we would lose adventurers in the process.  The prospect of escape removed, everyone shuffled outside, anxious to get the adventure underway.

As the group headed towards the van and began climbing in, the smell of gasoline began wafting through our nostrils.  At first we thought it was just outside and the smell would subside once we were in the van and no longer standing beside the exhaust pipe.  That was not so.  The smell was 10 times stronger inside the van that it had been standing outside on the sidewalk.  Our driver had started the van up and as it sat there running, waiting for everyone to get inside, the gas fumes began filling the van.  We knew from a prior email that there was no AC in the van and we would be relying on the windows to act as ventilation.  Now seemed like the perfect time to open the ventilation system.  Sadly, it was discovered that the only windows that actually opened were the two front seat windows.  There were two small side windows that only opened a crack, and a back window that sat over the exhaust pipe and opened halfway.  The large windows than spanned the majority of the van's flanks were completely sealed, rendering them useless panels of glass.  The back 2/3rds of the van was essentially a closed box with gas being pumped into it.  Still, we decided to press on.  We discovered that the gas smell subsided if we kept the van moving, allowing wind from the only two real windows that opened to increase the airflow and make breathing just barely possible.  Those of us with weak noses and/or respiratory systems used our shirts or other articles of clothing as scarfs to help filter out the smell.  Of course, every time the van had to idle at a stop sign or stop light, the smell again became unbearable and a round of coughing and gagging would ensue.  This led to cries from the passengers for the driver to keep moving.

To make our situation even more "adventurous", we had ventured out on our airport journey during the height of rush hour traffic.  As you can imagine, this meant lots of stopping and pausing in the van as we attempted to maneuver our way through traffic.  By this time the gas smell was so bad that most of the passengers were expressing regret over agreeing to this little adventure.  This regret led to discussion about the best possible route to the airport, aka - which route would produce the fewest opportunities for the van to idle and thus lessen our exposure to toxic gasoline fumes.  The driver decided that the main highway was the fastest and entered the on ramp, preparing to merge.  This led to outcries from passengers who were sure the highway would lead to more stopping and possible death by gasoline inhalation.  The back and forth verbal exchanges led to some crazy driving and a fairly miraculous merging in to oncoming traffic and then a quick exit onto the first off ramp we came across.  As the van pulled to a stop at the traffic light for the off ramp, our driver announced that we had just used a quarter of a tank of gas to drive 8 miles and we were now in need of finding a gas station to fill up the gas tank.  Hmm...  There must be a gas leak.  That would certainly explain the strong gas smell.  But how bad was the leak?  Surely we could just fill up and keep driving to the airport.  Next stop: the nearest gas station.

After about 5 minutes of driving around, we found a gas station and everyone piled out of the van as quickly as they could, gasping for breath and taking huge gulps of the fresh outside air.  Our makeshift "scarves" had been no match for the might of the van's gas fumes.  Several of the guys converged at the front of the van to examine the fuel line and see if there really was a gas leak.   One look under the van was all it took to see gas flowing from the fuel line like water from a faucet.  Great.  Now what?  "We could fix it and still go to the airport," offered one person. "We could just leave it alone and still likely make it to the airport," offered another.  "No thanks.  Dying is not on my lists of things to do for today, and, I'd like to add, not something we signed up for as a part of this trip," was another viewpoint offered.  We pulled the van off to the side of the gas station parking lot.  Some people went inside to buy snacks.  Some people began calling to arrange a ride back home.  A couple of the guys debated what to do about our poor lame van.  One thing was clear - no one was getting back in the van to take it for a drive.  I guess no one was willing to bet we wouldn't burst into flames somewhere along the rest of the trip to the airport.  We were pretty sure our friend would rather see us alive again than see us die valiantly trying to meet her at the airport.  Speaking of our friend.  Just as we were all piling out of the risky, death trap of a van, our friend texted the girl she thought was going to pick her up that her flight had arrived 30 minutes early and she was now preparing to collect her bags and wait outside to be picked up.  Oh the irony!  We didn't know whether to laugh or cry as we informed out friend of our now disastrously foiled plans to surprise her at the airport.  She was touched at our good intentions and told us not to worry, that she would find a way back home.  Well, at least we had the rest of the night to hang out, right?  Sadly, or hysterically, this night was not yet over.

After one guy called his mom to come rescue most of us, we sat around munching on snacks and giving the van a thorough lookover.  As it turned out, there were TWO gas leaks in the fuel line, and there was no way that van was driving anywhere without being fixed.  Further perplexing was the knowledge that it had been driven from Nebraska to Colorado just a few weeks prior as a replacement for the church's high school group, when their van broke down on the way home.  I will never know, or understand, how that van managed to drive all that way without literally blowing up.  Miracles still happen.

Soon the bulk of us were piling into a new vehicle, a much more road-worthy one this time, and saying goodbye to a small group left behind to await a tow truck that would take the van safely back to it starting point.  We drove back to our original meeting spot and decided we would order pizza for dinner, as everyone was quite hungry after our grand adventure.  When we arrived at the house, the pizza was ordered and then two people went to pick it up.  That's when the waiting began.  Our friend at the airport had said she was going to catch a bus and would call when she was close to the house and ready to be picked up.  That was an hour ago.  Where was she?  A call to her revealed that she had missed the bus and had to wait an hour to catch the next one.  She wouldn't be back for another hour.  The friends we had left waiting for the tow truck were still waiting, and it would take another hour before they showed up.  The two people who had gone to get the pizzas called to say that the pizza parlor had given our pizzas away to some firefighters and so they were waiting while more pizzas were made.  It was another 30 minutes before they finally returned.

Finally, 8:30 p.m. found us all back at our original meeting spot, eating pizza and shaking our heads in disbelief at the adventure we had just been on.  The good: we had all made it out alive.  The bad: we might have inflicted some long-term damage with all the gas we inhaled, and the van was definitely in bad shape.  We had some very good laughs that night as we related our story to friends who showed up later.  The long awaited 15 passenger van adventure had indeed been memorable and it was safe to bet that it would be another long while before the next adventure that involved a 15 passenger van.