100,000 Miles!

I remember hearing the family story about the day that my grandfathers car turned over 100,000 miles and he was so excited he pulled off the road, found a hotel and spent the night.  I don’t know which car of his it was or what year or any other details, just that he was super excited about it.  My grandfather was quirky man, but it made me think about the day my car would reach 100,000 miles. 

My first car, a 1986 blue Volvo station wagon was within 10,000 miles of the magic number when it was totaled in “The Great Alpha Phi Omega Car Accident of 1996”.   I was very sad to lose that car, because we’d had some awesome adventures in it, but I was almost sadder that it never saw 100,000 miles. 

The next 2 cars that I owned, a green Volvo station wagon and a white Chevy Cavalier, I’d bought used and were never really mine.  I have no idea of their mileage either when I bought them or when I sold them. 

Then in 1999 I bought my 1st Saturn.  It was a blue sedan and it had 7 miles on it when I drove it off the lot in Edmond, OK.  I was going to drive that car till the wheel fell off.  Well, or until Saturn gave me a good reason to trade it in!  

Just about a year after I bought my Saturn sedan, Saturn introduced the VUE it’s lineup and I wanted one! I was a bit disappointed that my car was so new and it would be ages before I could get a VUE.  In December 2005 I got an offer in the mail that I couldn’t refuse.  I don’t remember the details, but I remember getting more for my trade in than it would have cost to fix some of the problems that had developed and I got a $500 Target Gift Card – that’s like cash!

My Sedan was close to 100,000 miles, but not quite there yet.  I can’t remember the actual mileage but I’m guessing it was around 80-90,000. 

So, my VUE hitting the 100,000 mile mark was a milestone I’d been looking forward to for a long time!

When the car turned over 90,000 miles a few months ago I started calculating how many miles I drove each week to estimate about when we’d hit 100,000 and I knew it was coming before the end of the school year.   I was extra excited when I saw that it was within 150 miles the day before I was heading to Shenandoah National Park with Penny!

I was prepared, I’d googled the distance so I knew it would happen on Skyline Drive.  As we drove I perfected the art of taking pictures of the odometer while driving so I record the big moment!

It all went down on Saturday May 28, 2011 between Mile Marker 20 and 19, I was heading north on Skyline Drive!

One of my new favorite songs, Michael Franti & Spearhead’s I’ll be Waiting, was playing on the radio!  Oddly enough I haven’t heard the song all week!

 

I pulled off into the first overlook I came too, luckily it was within the same mile, and got a picture of the car with the view…the VUE with the view! LOL!

The car no longer has a “good side” there’s body damage on the front and the back, all my fault.  I hadn’t gotten it fixed because I thought there might be a major issue with the transmission, but there’s not.

I took a few more pictures to record the moment:

The Skyline Drive Mile Marker that just happened to be right across from the overlook for convenient picture taking!

The sign indicating the name of the overlook:

And several pictures of the view:

I think I’d make my grandpa proud, even if I didn’t stop and spend the night!

As I was driving to and from the park that day I was thinking about just where all those 100,000 miles have taken me.  Sadly most of those miles were accumulated driving to and from work.  I drive about 20 miles each way, 40 miles a day, 200 miles a week…it adds up fast.  Throw in weekend trips to Fredericksburg to see friends, Williamsburg & Richmond to see family, and the mountains to hike and it’s no wonder my 5.5 year old car already has 100,000 miles on it!

There have been a few epic road trips though…

In August of 2006 I drove up to Duncansville, PA to visit my friends Drew and Brenna at their new house! They’d moved in earlier in the summer and their oldest son was a year and a half and Brenna was newly pregnant with their 2nd. 

In October of 2007 I drove to Western Maryland for my friend Rachel’s Wedding! I also saw Drew and Brenna and Alex and Evan! Read about that trip HERE.

In December 2008 I took a New Years Road Trip to Canaan Valley, West Virginia. That link is to the 1st day, there are 4 total posts about the trip!

In February of 2009 I returned to West Virginia with Susan and Mike for “Blogfest 2009”, when I finally met Russell, Amy and Annette!

June of 2009 brought us the most epic of all road trips…Susan, Amy, Russell, Leah and I took a day trip to NJ to meet Janet Evanovich!

In December of 2009 my parents and I went to the Great Smoky Mountains after Christmas – it was an 8 hour trip and this remains the farthest I have ever driven this car! Hard to believe that I have accumulated 100,000 miles with 1 long distance road trip! I didn’t blog about that trip at all though. 

The car has also taken me on many days to Shenandoah, Catocin Mt, George Washington National Forest, Liberty Mountain PA for snow tubing, Sky Meadows State Park, and more…just check out the blog archives!

And before I go, one quick story about the 1st day I had the car!  I took delivery of my car on a rainy weeknight in December 2005.  I carefully drove home in the dark, unsure of myself in the new car.  It was about 35 degrees and raining.  The next morning I woke up and checked to see if we had a delay, nope.  The weather was still 35* and raining. I headed out.  At the intersection of Mohican and Old Bridge the back tires skidded on the ice, but the car handled it and all was fine.  The drive to school continued uneventfully as I enjoyed a Christmas Concert on the pops station on my brand new XM radio (Springing for the satellite radio was the best decision I’d made in years!!!!).   When I passed Hayfield HS though I knew something was up – the parking lot was empty!  Usually the High School is well into 1st period before I come through, hmmmm…did we have a delay I didn’t know about?  I was really close to school so I kept going.  When I arrived at my school and saw the parking lot empty, I figured that we must have had a delay.  I went in and saw one of our custodians and he informed that yes, we had a 2-hour delay and I was 3 hours early for school! It had been a late call and had I not been listening to my XM radio I would have heard the announcement! Oh well! Even if I’d heard when I was on my way to school I probably wouldn’t have gone back home!  In the 9 years I’ve been teaching that has only happened once though!

My VUE has been a great car and I’m looking forward to the next 100,000 miles! :-)