The Spelt Mobile

For the first time in my adult life I am carless. The Spelt Mobile has finally given up and been taken away. I have been driving a Chevy Astrovan since 1994 and the green Spelt Mobile was the second. The first one was blue. I was always amused at the fact that the first van was blue and that was when the colours of the bakery were green and white. The second van was green and then we changed the logo to blue, white and black.

I bought the original chevy astrovan in 1994, when I was expecting my third child and needed a larger vehicle with more seats. I remember driving it for the first time and I had always driven small cars before that. It seemed like all the other cars were so tiny when I was up in the BIG VAN. I quickly got used to it and whenever I drove a small car, I felt like I was way too close to the ground.

That first van came in very handy when I opened the bakery in 1998, being perfect for carrying trays of bread. I was thrilled to have such a versatile vehicle. Gas prices were well under $1.00/litre back then. I remember gas prices being as low as 49.9¢ per litre and everyone was freaking out when it went up to 79.9¢ per litre. I don't remember what year that was though.

After ten years of driving the first Chevy Astro van, it was time to move on. I started my search for the next Spelt Mobile and had a few criteria that must be met. I needed to be able to transport my children wherever we wanted to go. I also needed to be able to put two bread trays next to each other in the back of the van for doing deliveries.

On my search, I headed straight to Richmond Auto Mall and started looking at all the mini-vans available. I would go to a car dealer and say, "Can you please open the back of this van?" and I would take my two bread trays and try and put them in. It quickly became obvious that the trays would not fit in any of the vehicles that I wanted. I would have to get another Chevy Astrovan to meet my needs. And so the second Spelt Mobile was bought. A one year old Chevy Astrovan.

I have so many stories of the Spelt Mobile:

Driving the Coquihalla in white out snow. I couldn't see more than a few feet in front of the van and my daughter was in the seat next to me chanting, "Oh Goddesses and powers that be, please take this snow away from me." It took me 8 hours to drive from Kamloops to Hope. Then we hit a rainstorm through Abbotsford. That was a long day.

In 2008 when Christine and I went to France, a friend borrowed the Spelt Mobile and we told her before we left to not worry about people waving at her or honking their horn, etc. They were just Spelties. When we got home, some of our customers asked us who had been driving the Spelt Mobile. We laughed that people noticed and took it so seriously.

I have never had a hard time finding my car in the parking lot. The Spelt Mobile is big and has the bright How's that Spelt logo on it, I could even find it in the Metrotown Parking lot. That has to be the hardest parking lot to find a car in.

Many people have driven the spelt mobile over the years. Many road trips have been taken. Over the last several months, the Spelt Mobile has been unhappy. It is not driven as much as it was when I first got it. We stopped doing deliveries in 2008 and then when we shut down the Bakery in 2010, we barely drove it at all. After fixing it a couple of times over the last two months, it became clear that the repairs needed to keep it going were not worth the ongoing cost of running a vehicle like the Spelt Mobile. We took it to the garage (Irving Tire on Clark and 2nd) on December 22nd and they gave us a loaner car to use during the holidays. They said that they probably wouldn't be able to fix the car until the 27th due to the holidays and days off. We thought it was the fuel pump.

After Christmas on December 27th, I got the call that the damage to the Spelt Mobile was more extensive than we could have imagined. The cost of the repairs was quite high and there was no guarantee that it would fix the problem or how long until another problem would arise. After getting the information from the garage, Christine and I talked about our options and we decided to was time to let the Spelt Mobile go.

I have been bringing the Spelt Mobile to these guys for many years and have always been happy with the service from them, however, this time they went above and beyond. When I told Tom that we were not going to keep the van and we would find someone to pick it up and take it away, I requested to use the loaner to empty our personal contents from the van and take them home. Then we would come back with their loaner car. Tom told me that we could keep the car until the next morning if we needed to run some errands or get stuff done.

I told Tom and Richard from Irving Tire that I really appreciated them and everything that they had done for us and when I do have another vehicle, I will be back. Whenever I had taken the van to them, they were always clear about what needed to be done and how much it would cost. On a tight budget, this was very helpful. I had been to other garages in the past, but I was always treated well by them.

When we went into the garage to get our personal effects from the Spelt Mobile, we dropped off a bag of shortbread cookies and said Thank you. Tom said that he was glad that we made the decision we did, that he thought it wasn't worth fixing anymore. I told him that I had always felt like he was looking after my interests when it came to taking care of my car. He told me that he just wanted to treat me as if I was his sister. I smiled.

I am sad about losing the Spelt Mobile, one of the last vestiges of The Spelt Bakery and at the same time, it was time to move on. The Spelt Mobile may be gone and you will never see me driving it down the streets of Vancouver again, but the memories will always be there and as I have always done, a little bit of Spelt baking is just the right thing for me to give as a Thank you.

Thank you Tom and Richard at Irving Tire for caring for the Spelt Mobile and caring about your customers as family. Thank you Spelties for being part of our "family" . Thank you Spelt Mobile for all the good times and memories. My life would not have been the same without you.