The Honda Odyssey's Final Odyssey

The Honda Odyssey's Final Odyssey

Our Honda Odyssey has had a good run. We bought it new in 2016, and aside from a couple of minor trips to the shop, it's been a great vehicle. With over 208,000 miles under its belt and a reliable track record, we figured it could handle one last big adventure: a family road trip to Colorado.

Well… sometimes we’re wrong. And this was definitely one of those times.

The day before we left, I took the dogs to Norfolk, and on the way home, the battery light came on. I mentioned it to Robb but didn’t think much of it—the van still seemed to be running fine.

The next morning, we packed the van like we were never returning home. Between five kids (four of them adult-sized), Emmy, all our luggage, and enough food for a week, the Odyssey was loaded to the brim. We weren’t sure whether to pack for sun or snow, so naturally, we brought everything.

Just outside of Grand Island, the van lost power. Robb took an Uber into town and picked up a new battery from Walmart. After installing it, the van started again, but Robb had a hunch it was actually the alternator. We called our “emergency hotline”—aka the parents—for help. The Lutz's were in Sioux Falls but said they'd be back in Norfolk soon.

We looked into rental cars, but nothing big enough was available, and the mileage fees were outrageous—65 cents per mile over 1,000. And this trip? It involved a lot of miles.

We decided to try and limp back to Norfolk on one battery charge. That didn’t go well. The van broke down again in Silver Creek, a tiny town not far from Columbus. We made the most of it. We wandered around, checked out the campground, used the nice bathrooms, played pickleball, and hung out at the park.

Meanwhile, Robb was under the van, battling the alternator with guidance from a YouTube video—his hands and arms taking the brunt of the effort. When the Lutz's arrived, they brought a replacement part and a backup vehicle. They were incredibly kind about us hijacking their entire day to deal with our crisis.

We grabbed some food (Tomstone pizzas) at Tonto’s Tavern, where the owner was amazing. By then, it was pretty clear the whole town knew we’d broken down—our crew might’ve doubled the local population. The owner even comped our food and drinks. The kindness was overwhelming.

Robb got the new alternator in, but sadly, it wasn’t the magic fix we’d hoped for. So we transferred all our stuff into the Lutz's SUV. It got a little messy—especially with the golf clubs we’d brought for Robb and the boys. There wasn’t room for all of them, and Caleb had a mini-meltdown since golfing was all he really wanted to do. We worked it out: Caleb kept his clubs, while Robb and Bryce left theirs behind. We also left behind some snacks.

After chatting with the bar owner again, we found out we could leave the van parked there. Turns out, the town mayor was also at the bar and gave us the green light. We made a plan to call a local shop on Monday to see if they could take a look at it.

And that was our travel day. Not exactly smooth. By the time we finally hit the road again, our new estimated arrival time was 2:40 a.m.

Here’s to hoping Day 1 of the actual vacation treats us a little better.