Long may you run... saying goodbye to an old friend

“Friends forget you, women leave you, but trucks are forever”.

That was a Toyota trucks slogan several years back. At time it seemed appropriate. I was single, living on the east coast and trying to make it on my own. I can’t remember if I was in Richmond or Chapel Hill, but either way, at that time in my life I had not yet found my stride. Things in my life were changing, sometimes in very difficult ways, but my truck was a constant. He was always there dutifully fulfilling his role and carrying me to better days.

Unlike other cars I have owned, the 1987 Toyota 4-Runner never had a name. He (the truck) never told me what his name was. We were partners, equals in an agreement, and names weren’t necessary. Our paths came together when my dad bought him for me for my 17th birthday. We picked him up from a very kind police officer whose family was expanding and needed a more child-friendly car. That police officer loved that 4-Runner the same way I would love it years later. He asked to meet me before he would sell the car to my dad because he wanted to ensure the right person was going to be driving that truck.

The 4-runner never failed me. It was the chariot that carried me when times were good and a rock that I could lean on when times were bad. There were many times I felt like that truck helped me escape when I needed to; and some of my best memories are with him on a beautiful day, with good music playing on the radio and friends in the passenger seat. He was there for momentous personal occasions that included graduating from high school, from Willamette with my BS, and from UNC with my doctorate. He drove Erika and me on our first date.

All told we have visited 17 states (CO, WY, UT, ID, OR, WA, KS, MO, IL, IN, KY, WV, VA, MD, PA, NY, OH, NC) and Ontario, CA. We have visited the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and driven over the Rockies four times. We pulled a trailer from Salem, OR to Richmond, VA, not bad for a 4-cylinder engine with more than 150,000 miles. He was stolen from me and returned and broken into a second time. We drove through hurricanes and tropical storms, ice-storms, a blizzard, endless rain in Oregon, and beautiful hot Carolina Summers. He made me happy and he was always there.

During my final year at UNC, he started to develop a piston slap. The engine sounded like it was falling apart but I was determined to keep him running through graduate school. He made it. Maybe it was foolish, but I shipped him home to Denver when I left Carolina knowing that he was going to be garaged for at least two years when Erika and I were living in Australia. He was a dear friend and I couldn’t just sell him. I didn’t want that friendship to end and I hoped to drive him when I got back from Oz. Two years down under turned into three and half, but this past month when I returned home to Denver, he fired up with no problem. The piston slap was still there but he was running. For one glorious day I drove him without any problems in the beautiful Colorado sun. It was just like old times and I was happy. He passed emissions with no problem and despite the age, he looked stunning with his new Colorado Plates. The next day Erika and I left for San Diego and Dad was going to trailer him in a few weeks to CA… but he never ran properly again.

The required repair to keep him running is way more than the car is currently worth. Even if the repair is successful there are many other things that could go wrong with him at any moment. Erika and I are thinking about kids soon and I would probably be forced to give him up in the near future. Maybe it is for the best that I have to let him go. There are so many memories tied up in that car but I am in a new phase of my life and it is time to look forward. I think he would have liked to be turned in for “Cash for Clunkers” as he would know it was best for me and my family, but alas, he is too good of a car and his fuel efficiency is too high for eligibility. Instead it is time to send him to his final rest and I hope that his parts will help bring joy to others. In some way I am glad I don’t have to be the one to turn him over, but in other ways I feel like I have let my old partner down by not being there for him when he needs me.

In the Summer of 2003 he reached a major milestone, and turned over 200,000 miles. A good friend Kelly joined us on a day trip from Chapel Hill to Wilmington, NC. We timed it perfectly so that as the dial turned to 200,000 miles we were right on the beach looking out over the ocean (the pictures above). On the CD player, Neil Young’s “Long May You Run” was playing. I was crying then, just as I am now. That was a perfect moment and that is how I will always remember him.

Goodbye old friend, you will be missed.

"We’ve been through some things together; With trunks of memories still to come; We found things to do in stormy weather; Long may you run.Long may you run; Long may you run; Although these changes have come; With your chrome heart shining in the sun; Long may you run." -- Neil Young

Setting up shop in San Diego

Click on this link for more pictures

Similar to when we moved to Australia in 2006, we arrived in San Diego with almost nothing. Luckily this time we had some experience in the “need to buy everything for a house” category. In the past two weeks we spent a lot of time at Ikea and Target and, therefore, haven’t explored any of our new city. We’re hoping to start checking out the sites of SD soon, but for now we’re happy to be settled and have a place to call home for the first time in four months. Because Tony like to keep track of these types of things, here is a great statistic -- when our mattress arrived a week ago, it was the 50th bed we had slept on since April 7th. It felt good to unpack our bags after four months and place our clothes in a dresser drawer. We had some amazing adventures, met some interesting and beautiful people and saw some spectacular sites over the past 4 months, but I think we’re pretty ready to be settled for a bit. While our stories may no longer be as entertaining or exotic as tales from our travels, we will try to keep the blog updated and keep people entertained.

For now, some things we have noticed about San Diego: there is no lack of sun, surf, scenery, traffic and people-watching opportunities. The beaches are beautiful; the weather is beautiful; and the people are beautiful. People love to be outside and everyone seems to be exercising all the time; it makes you feel bad if you don’t! The highways are big out here –7 lanes on each side of the road. We have to get used to getting across 5 lanes to get to an exit. We also notice that drivers here are pretty bad, but maybe drivers everywhere are bad and we just notice it more here.

This past Saturday we decided not to do anymore house stuff and instead went for our first hike in the area. We drove up to Poway lake and climbed up to Mt Woodsen –about 8miles roundtrip. It was a nice hike but not as spectacular as the reviews seemed to have suggested. See the linked pictures. We might have to drive a bit further to get to some better hikes but it was a good chance to see the area and stretch our legs. On Sunday we spent some time in La Jolla watching the seals swim around the cove and the surfers catch some waves at Wind and Sea beach; just another day in beautiful Southern Cali.

Check back now and then and we’ll try to keep up with some interesting stories and write about what catches our attention.

Here, there and everywhere... and finally in San Diego

Sorry we disappeared for a while. Since our last post, we have been some places, done some things, and have been very busy. Because we were travelling with Matt, then seeing friends and family in Australia and the USA we wanted to spend as much time as possible with some people we hadn’t seen for a while. Just not enough time to blog and do the million other things on our ‘to do’ list. Once we’re a bit settled, we’ll resume blogging more regularly.

Since we last posted we have been to Katherine, Kakadu, Darwin, Alice Springs and Uluru in the Northern Territories, Australia; said a tearful goodbye to friends in Sydney and the city we called home for 3 ½ years; flew across the Pacific into L.A. then on to Chapel Hill, North Carolina on July 4th; caught up with friends and family in NC; bought a 2010 Subaru Forrester – named “Susie the Subi”; drove from North Carolina to Denver, Colorado via Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas; caught up with friends and family in Denver; visited Rocky Mountain National Park; saw Tony’s dad absolutely rock-out on the harmonica while jamming with the band at his 60th b-day party; drove from Denver to the west coast via Western Colorado, Southern Utah, Arizona, Nevada and the Mojave Desert in eastern California before finally arriving at our final destination in beautiful San Diego, California, USA.

Along the way we have seen crocodiles, kangaroos, black cockatoos, parrots and birds of all manner, humpback whales (saw 10 off the south head in Sydney in one day; one even breached twice), North Carolina deer, Rocky Mountain deer, a herd of elk, pronghorn antelopes, and beavers. We have seen ancient art that pre-dates all western history. We have watched sunsets into the Timor Sea and the Pacific Ocean, over the Katherine Gorge, the Kakadu Flood plains, Uluru, the Bluegrass of Kentucky, the Colorado Rockies, and stunning Southern Utah. We have logged 5,000+ miles in a car, driven through or next to Darwin, Kakadu, Nitmiluk, The Arhnem Land Escarpment, Uluru-Kata Tjuta, Blue Ridge, Rocky Mountain, Canyonlands, Arches, Moab, Capital Reef, Zion, Valley of Fire, Lake Mead and Mojave National Park. We have driven through Kansas late at night trying to outrun a big thunder storm and driven through a massive rain storm in the California desert. We watched the Colorado Rockies blow a 3-run lead at home and followed the Ashes and the tri-nations via internet. We have eaten cheap and tasty Mexican food, roasted S’mores, eaten grilled Kangaroo and tried to get readjusted to the sad state of coffee in the USA. We even faced the double whammy of cultural oddity: reverse-culture shock and Southern California.

It has been a good five weeks and we will post stories and pictures soon.