Shaggin' Wagon

As soon as GG had asked me to be on the team for RGR, I was quick to volunteer my van for use.  Typically teams rent a big passenger van for these types of races.  I think they may even be required for the big races like Ragnar & Hood to Coast.  At least that is the impression I get from the many blogs that I read & pictures I see from said race recaps.

There was no reason to rent a passenger van when I own one!  Yes, 6packmomma here is always traveling in style with some sort of  "bus" and it's no stranger to being full of people and stuff going all over from place to place.  I think She Runs Everywhere also applies to my van!!

I've never been one to name my vehicle, but kinda wish I had a cute name for it right now.  Actually our last van was a big red passenger van & sometimes I'd call her big red.  And sometimes I do say big blue when talking about our current vehicle.  Other friends & family have certain names they call my van....church bus, Peterson mobile, boat, stranger danger van, rapist van (don't ask, but it's all in innocent fun!) or just plain BUS!  And in my town everyone knows my van by sight and sees (or hears....as in the noise from the kids or perhaps screaming mother on occasion) it coming from miles away.  I do not have to have a special license to drive it since it's a personal vehicle.  However, I do have a class D commercial vehicle license (not a full blown CDL) which lets me drive an actual church or other business vehicle.  Anyway, I'm used to hauling it around.

I headed over to Muscatine with my van on Thursday morning.  I actually had a funeral to attend first (worked out to be perfect timing.....may you rest in peace Great Uncle John) then headed over to GG's house.  I actually have never decorated my vehicle windows so I wasn't sure what to do.  But GG had all the supplies, I just had to get creative & get decorating.

I didn't get as many pictures as I would've liked, but you get the idea.  We wrote all over the windows with our team name & other sentiments like #1 Iowa, Tiffin or Bust, our initials on the back & then a tally for each leg that we ran.

Then we drove half way across Iowa and then back like it was just your average Thursday & Friday.  So many stories and moments of fun were crammed into my van within the next 24+ hours.  Don't worry, I'll recount SOME of them, but some things stay between us team mates.

Somewhere along the way Patches came up with the idea of calling it the Shaggin' Wagon.  If she told the story then I don't remember it.  But we liked the name & it stuck.  As a team we were able to fit very comfortably into the van, plus had it loaded with ALL of our stuff.  It worked very well as our traveling headquarters since we had to eat, sleep (if you wanna call it that!), change clothes several times, be back seat drivers and navigators and who knows what else.  But it successfully got us from point A to point B with no problems and that's what we really needed!!

Do you name your vehicles?

Have you ever, more less, lived in your vehicle for a time while you traveled?