"The Rest" of The Rest of the Story.

There is almost always more to every story that never gets told. It is no different in this case.

You read the story of the on-going saga of the missing van earlier this week, well, here is the rest of that story.

The very next day after posting that story Shari and I dropped by TDK to talk with the mechanic and see about the progress of the van.

He mentioned to us that there was one small piece missing: A piece of plastic trim that connects the door frame and holds down the edge of the carpet on the floor board. -Not a big deal, but still a fairly important part.

They suggested that I go back to the previous shops and see if was just laying around.

I have to admit to you that I was not interested in the prospect of confronting these gentlemen, but I did it anyway.

I arrived at the home of the first shop owner and no one was at home. So I carefully walked around the yard where he kept my van parked to see if I could find the part just laying around. You guessed it: While I was snooping, the owner came driving up. He had this look on his face of "What do yo think you're doing?" You get the picture.

When he got out of his truck I explained to him why I was there, and the first words out of his mouth were: "Your van still isn't fixed?" I think it was both surprising and amusing to him at the same time.

My answer was simple, 'Yup'.

I told him about the part I was looking for and he assured me that everything was placed back in the van when he was done. But an interesting thing happened.

He told me that if I couldn't find the part he would be more than willing to go to the local junk yard and get one for me. We chatted for a while longer and walked around his yard like two old farmers mulling over the south-forty, browsing around and looking at a couple of old cars he was working on: a 68 Mustang and and a Cougar. All in all I felt as though he was trying to apologize in his own way for his contribution to the debacle.

As I drove off and on my way to the "other guy", I was even more leary of showing my face there. Unlike the previous week when we pick up Shari's assembled van he was at the shop.

I told him, once again, why I was there, and so he took me out to the yard to look for the missing part. When we couldn't find it and he was convinced that it must be at the first guys place, he said something that totally blew away.

He told me, and I quote: "I feel I owe you an apology for the way I treated you." Wow. can you believe that? Although he did sort of come up with a couple more "excuses" why he did what he did, I could see that he was really trying to be sincere.

So I shook his hand and said, "I accept your apology." I wish I could tell you that he said something like let me refund you some money, or let me make it up to you in some way, but he didn't, and I guess that's ok too.

Did I mention to you? I got a call about an hour ago, and Shari's van in finally finished.

So $3,500 and 9 1/2 months later, Shari can have her van back. Wave at her next time you see her driving, you'll know it's her, she'll be the one grinning and waving like she is in a parade.

-John