Ode to Vanna White

The Pop'rs Cousins, along with Aunt Julie and Uncle Lynn, left the beach this weekend, headed for home. After an overnight stop at our house, they were on their way back to Northeastern Wisconsin. Their 14+ hour trip was made more comfortable, of course, thanks to Vanna White.

We're not talking about the "Wheel of Fortune" star here. We're talking about a big ol' white Econoline Conversion Van, with close to 260,000 miles on it. The Pop'rs Family bought Vanna in 1994, when the boys were little and Soccer Boy wasn't yet digging the sod out of his cleats. Vanna has traveled to DC, OBX, and Florida too many times to count. She's also always up for ski trips at the blink of an eye! The shot above shows Vanna in her younger years, with Shark Boy, Aunt Julie, Moses, Uncle Lynn and College Boy ready to embark on another Vanna Voyage.

Vanna is outfitted for the Traveling Life, you betcha. She has four sets of headphone jacks in the back for iPods and personal DVD players. "We laughed at first when we’d ask the boys a question and they would yell because they were wearing headphones," Aunt Julie says. "College Girl has a habit of getting carsick in Vanna, with the movies playing and all the junk we eat on trips, so she is banned. The dogs see us loading Vanna up for a trip and will jump in if we leave the door open. They know we are going away!" Both Trouble Elizabeth and Moses have made multiple trips to the beach in Florida in Vanna. "Trouble Elizabeth had to go on his first beach vacation when he had a broken leg, and needed physical therapy," Julie recalls.

Then there was the time when Auntie J. was seven months pregnant with Soccer Boy. "We got to Milwaukee and I made Lynn stop," Julie explains, wincing at the memory. "I felt closed in, uncomfortable and trapped (much like College Girl feels when she gets Vanna Sick), so he pulled over at a rest stop. He called my OB, who laughed when told I had only been on the road an hour-and-a-half! So I took some Dramamine and slept the rest of the trip. When we got to the hotel for the night, I was amazed at how good the boys had been. Lynn retorted that I could have slept through an atomic bomb!"

Vanna showed her advancing age during this last beach trip. Just outside Milwaukee, she blew a tire. Near Louisville, she overheated. And when Vanna and the Gang reached my neck of the woods, she had to go to the mechanic for a radiator problem.

Everyone made it back to Wisconsin safe and sound, though. But Uncle Lynn is thinking about retiring Vanna. He's got his eye on a successor--another white Econoline Conversion Van. Vanna White the Second, I suppose?