About a week ago, my car rolled over the 200,000 mile mark. I had anticipated this milestone, so I was a bit excited.
When I first got my car, back in 2000, I told everyone that I was going to drive my car to the moon. Now I have passed the 200,000 mile point. Ahead lies the lunar surface.
The moon on average is 238,857 miles from Earth. There's not an exact distance because the moon revolves around the Earth in an elliptical orbit. Sometimes it's 252,088 miles and sometimes it is 225,622 miles from Earth. Needless to say, at this point in my trip, all I can see in the windshield is creamy moonscape. I'm beginning to feel the lunar, gravitational pull. Hopefully I will land my car on a flat spot where the heavens can be forever viewed from my front seat and not down in a crater. Crater life would suck for my 2000 Corolla.
My husband's truck is headed for the moon too. I can see him in my rear view mirror. Wouldn't it be romantic if we landed side by side? Parked together, forever viewing the universe. Ah, such a magical, romantic place is the moon.
As the number 200,000 was getting ready to come up, I drove my car to the park in Pendleton. I wanted to get a good picture of the 199,999. It had started snowing and there was a beautiful bunch of ducks cavorting in the pond in the park. Just a common, everyday, Earth scene.
I imagine that anyone watching me sit there snapping flash pictures inside my car, must have thought - "weirdo!" But it's like they say, "The heart wants what it wants."
It's not as easy as you think to get a picture of the odometer and also get a picture of the world outside your windshield, all in one picture, and have it make sense. So I probably shot off a dozen flash photos in my car. Yeah, I might be a weirdo.
Satisfied, I headed for home. I could barely tear my eyes away from the odometer. I wanted to see the moment when everything changed. And of course, why not get the 200,000 on record? I was driving down Old Pendleton Pike with my camera at the ready.
Sometimes I wonder how I am even able to walk and chew gum. I had it in my mind that when the 200,000 came up that each individual number would roll around - like in the old cars - and slowly 200,000 would be revealed to me. Instead, when the number hit, it just hit. What a huge disappointment! I wanted rolling numbers, I wanted clicking, I wanted dramatics. Instead, I get a big number with little fanfare.
And you probably notice that my check engine light is on. When the 200,000 rolled up, I decided that I'm not gonna worry about that anymore. We're in the moon's gravitational pull. It's all over but the landing!
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