Goodbye Old Friend

This week, Herman sold his Mercedes to our mechanic. He owned that car eleven years before I meet him, which means he had it for a total of thirty-two years.

As much as I’m ready for a new set of wheels, it saddens me to say goodbye to an old friend. This car, for the last twenty-one years, has delivered me safely over a hundred thousand miles, to countless destinations across the western United States and Canada. It became a part of our family, part of us, with its old comfortable seats and rattling diesel engine. We’ve made so many happy memories meandering down the road looking for adventure. She was our gilded chariot, sometimes our magic carpet, and whenever despair for the world grew insufferable, she would set us free on the road to wander in the peace of wild things.

Goodbye old friend.