The Van

I bought got a van about a year ago from my boss I've probably driven it about 30 time since I got it. It's a 1984 Chevy Beauville passenger van. I got it because I like old vans, and because I play the drums so I need a vehicle to move them around whenever I play somewhere, which hasn't been for a while. The reason I haven't driven it so much is because things keep going wrong with it. Well only two things, but they were pretty big problems. Last Spring, the alternator went out and I didn't get it fixed until a week ago. Now that it was fixed, I got the insurance put back onto it. I wasn't planning on driving the van a whole lot, just when I needed it for moving something or just to drive around town. I put $20 of gas into it a couple days ago and yesterday I took it to La Crosse to find out a new thing that's gone wrong with it.

I was driving it to school and everything was going fine. It was running good and everything works in it including the heat, stereo, blinkers but not the wind shield wipers. I parked on the street and looked around for any no parking or 2 hour parking signs. There wasn't any so I went about my business. I got done with class at about 12:15 and went back to the van. I had no tickets and everything was going smoothly, so I began my trip back home. I looked down at the gas gauge and noticed that I had a quarter of a tank left of gas. It gets pretty bad millage so I check the gas frequently. As I was driving, I noticed a familiar smell. I smelled a little like fumes or gas. I didn't think much of it because it's a pretty old car and that can happen from time to time with old cars. I kept driving and looked at the gas gauge again. I was only about half way home and I was already down to an 8th of a tank. I didn't think much of that either. The gauge must be wrong thought. As I kept driving, the gauge was rapidly moving down when all of a sudden, the needle was all the way down. "There's no way I could have used $20 worth of gas in one trip to La Crosse", I thought to myself, so I kept driving. When I got into Trempealeau, the inside of the van reeked of gasoline and when I opened my window, it was as if the smell got stronger.

I arrived to my house and instantly called my boss to see if he knew anything about the smell. He didn't answer his phone. So I took my dog out for a walk. While I was walking down the drive way, I noticed a big trail of some sort of liquid. All the pieces in my head matched up. The van was leaking gas on my way home. But it was hardly a leak, the trail looked as of a whole river of gas had just flowed through my drive way. I figured out that there must be a leak in the fuel line of the van because no gas drips out when its just sitting there. Now I have to get that fixed. Who knows if I'll ever get to drive the van without any problems going wrong with it.