My car. My bike. My body. All just vehicles.

Accordingly to the Second Law of Classical Thermodynamics everything wears out: Entropy.

With no attachments to finding my happiness based on intimate objects, people, situations, I bid farewell to my 1997 Saturn SL. It had served me well. Owing no one, I paid cash for it in 1999. The last few years, time has taken it's toll. If a car is taken care of well, it could last 17 years or 230K miles. Thinking that I could have caught some of these maladies earlier, I might have extended it's life.  Perhaps a lesson for my own health.

So, the car has served purpose other than transport; perhaps a reminder for regular maintenance, and most importantly a measure of time. Yes. My life long reflections have centered around the fallacy that we all seem to agree upon in this existence: Time. How much we have, no one knows. But as I was reminded at a friends funeral, it's what we do with that commodity. To what good use do we put it for whatever that duration may be.

During the time of the Saturn; there was Paula, Ginger, and Kerry.

1999 I remember the early morning hours of waking up in Eagle Ridge territories (Galena, IL) leaving at the break of dawn to go deliver my brother Terry's eulogy. He and I had talked about it earlier in the summer. I had asked him what the prognosis was (Laryngeal cancer). He said that he did not want to know...just to be able to wake up every day, and breathe.

2001 The Fall that I traveled through the Moab with Flyer, my beloved golden retriever, companion, hiking buddy. We drove west through Colorado, The Moab, Zion National Forest and Bryce Canyon. We spent Thanksgiving with the O'Hern clan camping in Bryce Canyon. Coning back and stopping to staying in Four Corners, then Manitou Springs, Colorado. Epic trip.

2003 Sleeping in the car with Flyer during a storm. We had gotten trapped in a muddy farm field where we were camping. The Briar Patch; a piece of land that had been converted to a informal Blue Grass festival: I remember a wind shear had kicked up and tore 95 mph winds through the area. Mike and Amy Fenders had just finished playing and I headed back to my tent. The winds knocked down trees around us an flattened my tent.

The Saturn had brought me to Fairfield.

2008 Watching the setting sun while driving ten miles south of town on Highway 1. Receiving a call from my sister to hear that our brother Mike had recently passed away.

Many trips travelling to go camping, cross-country skiing and biking along the Root River Trail  in Minnesota..

Delivered to my last Tour of the Mississippi River Valley, by complete happenstance I connected with Team Evil Wheels - a totally unplanned, eventful bike ride.

This vehicle's lifespan finished at 16 years, 189K miles and many fond memories with all the peaks and valleys that life had to offer along the way.

No attachments, just the measure of what happened during the time of it's service.

Breathe. Move on.