Thanks to all of you who helped me out with Portland OR mechanics.
 We at 1st took the van in to a place near us (walking dist).  They
looked at it and said the head gaskets were bad and it would be
$1200-$1500, unless it needed new heads, then it could be as much as
$2500 plus all the other little stuff we needed to have done.
Then I got a couple of recommendations for Halsey Automotive so we took
it there and told them it was mysteriously loosing water (we could never
see anything on the pavement, etc.)  and gave them the whole list of
other things.  They called back and said they found a leak at a hose at
the manifold (I think that's what they said) and they could find nothing
wrong with the head gaskets.   YeeHah!!!!!
We were prepared (mentally not fiscally) to fork over the $2500 and
instead we will get out of there for around $600 (that little stuff does
add up, but includes a full tune).
Again, thanks you all; you really saved us a lot of $.
Gretchen