Our Half Road Trip

Last winter, my wife and I were making some summer plans. We like taking road trips, but we do not always like the time spent on the road together. Our family is not exceptional. Normally, by the end of the trip, we are trying not to kill each other if the trip is long enough. So far, no one has been left at a truck stop, although we almost parked around the back just to get a reaction.

The last road trip was also one of our best ones despite the circumstances. That was the trip we took last November for my father-in-law’s funeral. He had dementia, and so his death was sort of a relief because it was tough to see the shell he had become. So, the last trip was a bittersweet trip.

So, we wanted to redeem the road trip. We wanted the joy of the road trip, but better memories to come from the trip. So we decided to visit my mom. She is 91. My kids call her Oma to differentiate her from Grandma. We gave her the nickname, Oma-Thuselah, because we figure she might live just a little shy of Methuselah. So, now we need to figure out this trip.

Visiting my mother is one thing, but we also had a wedding to attend in May. My niece was getting married in Iowa. We started looking into getting split tickets to see my mom in NJ, and then flying to Iowa to put our vacation together. Things were starting to add up quickly with the split tickets, rental cars in NJ and Iowa, etc. We like road trips, but do not have the time to head to NJ and then drive back. The logistics of flying are not very fun. I also wanted to get my late father’s RC boat to bring back home to display. So, we need to figure out how to drive and fly.

This led us to the best option we could find: fly to NJ, and road trip home in a rental van. The rental van worked, but I would never buy a Chrysler Pacifica, nor would I buy a rental car. I still prefer a Transit van over our Odyssey.

What about the Pacifica?

I cannot say that the van is horrible for around town or for people who have no legs or are of short height. However, if you are a little bit on the tall spectrum…. Well, the van is not going to be great if you sit in the middle. The stow and go seating is a cool idea for stowing the seats, but not a great idea if you want to sit in them for a long time. My kids said their knees were above their hips, and they were in pain after about an hour or so. This is fine for around town, but on a road trip, this is a poor option.

Personally, I hate touchscreen controls. This is not a problem unique to Pacifica, but please stop. Seriously, I want to ask all manufacturers to please stop this! It is a major pain in the butt to find the heated seat switch while driving. Yes, I like heated seats in a cooler climate, but I like switches. I want to hear “click,” and then the bun warmer turns on, or click, and then the bun warmer turns off. That is very nice. Going through traffic, trying to turn off the heated seat…. It is distracting. On the bright side, you get practice using fine motor skills while driving over potholed, covered streets while trying to hit the baby ant-sized control.

There are safety features. We had the same thing with the Transit. The Transit van did not like the dew. Once the van warmed up and the dew/condensation went away, the van was fine, and there were no bells. The Pacifica…. Well, this is like that busy little gossip at a tea party. The van has to alert you to every system not working. When I say Alert, I mean the Busy Gossip SHOUTING the latest news. I thought something major had happened, but it was only that the adaptive system and emergency braking system were not available. The best part is this happened in South Dakota when we were driving through some insane snow/rain/whatever the heck that was storm. I love hearing alarms that alert me to nothing really that severe RIGHT NOW, while it appears that gremlins are pouring buckets of water over the windshield. A small message on the dashboard would have been sufficient.

(Not all creatures seemed to like this van. I was greeted one morning by a bird who desired to express its opinion.)

The good

The van got great gas mileage. As we were driving from the East Coast through the flat Midwest with the cruise set right about 80, we were getting 27 mpg. When we hit the storms in SD and the snow in Wyoming, we got about 22 MPG. You might be tempted to say, “I get that mileage in my…”. We were going uphill, driving in headwind and sidewind, and it was literally snowing. So, the mileage was impressive considering the conditions. Yes, this van will drive up hill both ways while using a cane! Minivans these days don’t know how good they’ve got it.

The van does have a decent sound when you hit the gas. My son would chuckle when I would say, “Dang it! My foot slipped again!” I know that the Dodge V6 is not known for its reliability. However, it did great for us. It definitely has enough power to get on the interstate. Keep in mind that this is a minivan. This is not something you long to drive or look forward to driving, but the engine sound makes it a little less painful.

The “trunk” has a surprising amount of room. We were able to get all our bags back there and just have the necessary accessible items in the front. This is impressive as we were traveling with my wife, two daughters, and our son. My wife had a packing list, and the kids made sure not to violate the list, but I sort of ignored it. When I opened my bag, my wife’s first question was, “Did you follow the list?” My response, “Yeah, I saw it, but figured this all fits in the bag, so I’m good.” Lighting only shot out of her eyes and not from the heavens. So, I got to live another day.

Final Verdict

The Pacifica is a pretty good van. I would not recommend it if you have taller kids, but it got us from point A to point B just fine.

The next few weeks, I will be covering the World’s Largest Truck Stop. Seriously, they have a SEMI IN THE TRUCK STOP! A SEMI! It was totally awesome. Yes, it is about as redneck as it gets, but man, I just wanted to shout Yee HAW over everything that I saw there. I also look forward to reporting about the Columbia Zoo, and Hobby Stores.

So, grab some coffee and get ready to read about some cool things to see in the good ole US of A! I know my family enjoyed the trip. No, this is not our ideal road trip vehicle, but it served its purpose. I think we redeemed the road trip and live to take another one.