The End of an Era

Pandette is gone. A tow truck showed up and its driver handed me a check. While I was waiting I sat in her driver's seat, contemplating all the times I had sat in that very chair reading and sipping wine or whiskey with a lantern on the dashboard---how many nights? Probably hundreds. I bought her on April 1, 2020. It was raining that day, I got here from the Subaru of Portland used car lot. For a month and a half she was parked in front of my friends' house as I built her out and equipped her for an adventure that would last four years, four months, eight days, thirteen states, and 70000 miles.

So much history, so many memories. Pandette wasn't just a sensible minivan, she was my partner in crime from the badlands of Washington state, to our beloved Quartzsite in Arizona, to the brick and God flavored towns of Kansas, to the inspiring natural beauty of Utah. One battery, one alternator, two sets of tires, and one mystery electrical issue two Honda dealers couldn't sort out. All I can hope is that someone will end up with her and continue the adventure, a new series of adventures---if they stay on top of the oil consumption issue P may be good for tens of thousands of miles. The original plan was to buy land and retire Pandette there but that didn't pan out. I don't have parking Downtown and insurance here in Portland is ridiculous.

The driver handed me a check and I walked awake from my van, my partner in crime, just as I've walked away from her countless times over the past four years. The difference is that this time I will never see her again.

I am truly alone now...