100K

With the exception of a brand new gray Toyota Corolla that Margo and I purchased when we lived in Chicago before Ben was born and which was totalled by a careless driver backing out of our neighbor's driveway in Arizona (Grrrr...!), I've always driven older cars. You know, cars that are seasoned. Cars that cost less for insurance and registration. Cars that sort of make you wonder how much longer they'll last. Cars that challenge you to contemplate that magic point when the cost of maintenance and repairs outweighs the value of the vehicle.

I've been driving a great Honda Accord that we purchased with the insultingly low restitution amount offered to us from the totalling of my Corolla a couple of years ago (Grrrr...!). Chad Robinson and Pat Tudisco helped me narrow down the search for this vehicle, and it really is a nice car (though it has a few quirky personality traits -- mostly electrical twitches). It's showing signs that it needs a new fuel pump pretty soon, and it would be great to get inside the dash and make the fuel warning light actually work. But I'm hoping to keep it running for a long time to come.

This last week, we were treated to one of those rare milestones in car ownership: We watched the odometer click over to 100,000. Of all the old cars I've driven, I've never watched this happen before. I always seem to catch it at around 100,004 or something. But this time, we were ready. On my way home from work Friday, I knew that the big moment would come the next time I drove into town. So we packed up the family Saturday morning and drove into Warrenton for breakfast at IHOP. Right as we came down the hill with Carousel in sight, the kids peered over my shoulder, Margo fired up the camera, and we caught this momentous occasion on film.



Okay, probably not the most earth-shattering milestone in our lives, but it was fun nonetheless.

I wonder what our lives would be like if we had odometers -- little guages to show how far we've come and how much wear and tear we've been through along the way. What would some cosmic mechanic tell us if they could peek under the hood of our emotions and spirits, pull out the service record to review how well we've been taking care of ourselves, and offer advice about what maintenance steps we should take to prolong our safe and happy travels.