Ninety five degrees and no AC

From Lakeside, Ohio to Columbus is about 2.5 hours, and Saturday after we started out when it was 95 degrees (probably 105 on the asphalt) we discovered our AC in the van had died. It was working fine on Friday. About 10 miles out we returned to our cottage with an almost dead cat, flushed faces and wet clothes. First we tried the nice service station outside Lakeside, and not only was it closed (late Saturday afternoon) but it was for sale. Thankfully, our guests (daughter, son-in-law, niece and husband) came up with a plan after determining it was nothing they could fix when the Wal-Mart trip yielded nothing. We drove in air conditioned comfort in our daughter's new Honda, and our son-in-law Mark followed us in our van sweating out the trip getting us safely home. Then he got back in the cool car and made the return trip for his vacation at Lakeside. I hope he is fishing on the dock now, he deserves it.

Key Ignition Park problem in Chrysler Town and Country and Dodge Caravan

This is what's happening with my 2010 Town and Country Chrysler van, and since I found the problem on Google, it looks like I'm not alone and it is in a number of years of models. If I restart, move it a few inches, then place in Park very firmly, I can usually get the key out, but not always. Alternate key works only slightly better.

Intermittently, the key may not start the car or release from the ignition. If it is excessively worn, replace the key. If the new key doesn't work, replacing the lock cylinder including tumblers should correct this concern.

 http://repairpal.com/key-may-not-start-car-or-release-from-ignition-081

Then I found a recall notice, but I haven’t been notified.

RECALL Subject : Ignition Switch may Turn Off , 1 INVESTIGATION(S)
Report Receipt Date: JUN 26, 2014
NHTSA Campaign Number: 14V373000
Component(s): ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Potential Number of Units Affected: 438,109
All Products Associated with this Recall
Vehicle Make Model Model Year(s)
CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY 2008-2010
DODGE GRAND CARAVAN 2008-2010
DODGEJOURNEY 2009-2010

Handeling my new van

This morning after exercise class I stopped at the Lane Rd. branch of the Library to pick up a book I reserved (my last request for purchase of a title on the Constitution was denied but that's another blog). While I was there I flipped through the classic CDs in hopes there might still be a Messiah in the box. With hundreds in our congregation using the same material for Advent, I didn't think I find one (probably the largest Lutheran church in Ohio and the library hadn't purchased a new title on Lutherans in the U.S. in 40 years before I asked for one). But--there it was--Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

So on the drive home I popped it into the disc player in my new van, and now can't learn the trick to remove it. But the first 3 or 4 minutes are great. I also learned today what happens if you push the "panic" button on the key.

My 2010 Chrysler Town and Country Van

This is a stock photo, but it's about right. I bought it yesterday. It's like marrying a total stranger you met in a bar and waking up in the morning and wondering what did I do? Actually, it's not like that, since I've only been married once, to a man I'd known for 2 years, and never go to bars, so that's fiction, just like a lot of other examples, parables, fairy tales, etc., that has confused some of my readers when I explained Neal Boortz' fictional story about Carrington Motors. But it's really odd anyway.

This morning I went out to the garage at 6 a.m. and climbed in. I wanted to be sure I knew where the lights were because I knew I'd be leaving home in the dark. When I picked up Paul (son-in-law's father) for church this morning, I didn't know which button to push to open the passenger door. When I went to Panera's after church and decided to practice in the parking lot, I managed to power down all the windows but didn't know what to do to get them back up--and it was rather nippy. Also, the key thingy is a bit sensitive and I seem to be beeping the horn.

This van is about 13" longer than my 2002 Dodge Caravan, which means my husband and I have traded sides in the garage. That means when backing out in the dark of the first day of our "marriage" I was headed for the neighbors' bushes instead of the road. Also, it seems to be wider, because I can't get out of the driver's side without bruising my left calf. The frame seems to be about 12" away from the seat in which the rest of my body is waiting for a foot to hit the ground. And I'm not terribly tall.

And junk. Oh dear. Where will I put my junk? Although Chrysler has designed lots of neat storage, some under the floor, nothing hides things quite as well as a bench seat--like the huge road atlas, my extra athletic shoes in the big orange box, the snow scrapper/brush, and a pile of JAMAs. Now the passenger row has bucket seats, not a bench. My old van had a storage net anchored between the two bucket seats in the front--this van has a tidy little box, not expandable. The T&C has all sorts of pockets and cup holders in the door and between the seats--I guess for all the people who eat in their cars. It's a 7 passenger van, but I think you could serve snacks for 12. I don't eat much while driving, but I do drag along a lot of "stuff," none of which will fit in these little compartments.

However, there's a lot to love, too. It's awfully comfortable--no complaints about my Dodge, but this T&C makes it feel like a horse cart--or my husband's Ford Explorer (a fancy name for a small truck). Oodles of positions for the seats, and the middle and back row can disappear into the floor all together if you want to carry a small pony, dry wall, or some living room furniture with you. There are dual ventilation controls and back of the van vents, but I haven't figure that out. We weren't interested in a GPS system but this does tell me which direction I'm driving and the temperature. But I really liked the price. It had about $4,000 in discounts, plus they gave me $4,000 for my van, so it was under $20,000, making it cheaper than my Dodge was in 2002.

I went a bit more high tech in this search. Because of Chrysler's financial trouble, I was afraid this style might disappear. And it still could, of course. It's not like God created it--mortals invent things like AGW. I first saw the ad in the Columbus Dispatch. I went on line and looked up all the specs and printed them out. Then I e-mailed two dealers (the one who had the ad, and a Dodge dealer) explaining what I wanted. I got prompt responses and we chatted by phone with me questioning everything on the printout I didn't understand. One salesman sent me a brochure. But the Dodge salesman wasn't even coming close to the T&C in features or price. So after lunch, we drove to the east side (that's another bad point, location of dealer) which seemed like we were going to Pittsburgh, test drove it, and made a deal.

If you've had as many minivans as I have, you'll see this one is more boxy like some of the newish sedans or even the original mid-80s minivan--maybe muscular would be the word. I hope it gets good mileage like my Dodge, which was just great on the road.