233,000 miles

 The grey van hit 233,000 miles on Saturday, January 10!

233,000 miles!

We decided to have a final adventure day before Luca and Olivia went back to university, so we went up to Grand Rapids and check out the GRAM.  

The drive up started out dry, but precipitation started as he headed north into Michigan.  It was a drive that rewarded looking ahead and being super smooth behind the wheel.  The ran continued to pick up and the temperature continued to drop.  The right lane was ice-free and wet, while the left lane started to accumulate some ice and slush.  Pretty soon, the ditches started to accumulate our fellow road users as the conditions got increasingly dodgy.

Easing out to overtake was a function of looking ahead and seeking out a segment that looked pretty clear.  Very slowly, ease the car over, loose yet firm hand on the wheel.  Gently gently with the throttle!  Keep the wheels in the clear tracks in the lane ahead, ease past the car to be overtaken, and gently merge back to the right.  Leave plenty of room.  It was a drive the required a high degree of focus, and it was fun and rewarding.  Looking for grip, guiding the van to where the road was in the best shape, and making good progress.  Really, an intense and enjoyable drive.  We certainly made better progress during the daylight hours than when we rolled 100K in the blue van at night.  That drive was a bit more harrowing.

When we parked in Grand Rapids, I wasn't surprised to find the front of the van coated with ice.

Looking icy!

Being a 2008, this van doesn't have adaptive cruise control, so even though the front was totally iced over, the cruise control still functioned.

Icy H!

Even though it worked, cruise control is not the move on a drive like that!

Before heading to the museum, we enjoyed a quick coffee at Madcap:

We enjoyed exploring the museum. I particularly liked the staircases, bright, airy, wide, and enjoyable.  I think the cats would love running up and down those staircases!

Afterwards, we walked outside to find an ice sculpture in progress in front of the museum.  The folks were working on a dragon boat, and I thought the prow was very cool:

We had a pretty powerful hunger going.  Allison and I locked in on an Italian restaurant across the street from the museum.  Luca did a little searching and ended up finding Quartarino's, which specializes in Detroit-style deep dish.  We have fond memories of first encountering Detroit-style pizza in Telluride when we went camping out west, so we decided to give it a shot.

We were not disappointed!

Detroit-style Deep Dish

The pizzas were super tasty, though the Hunky Dory apparently replaced the sauce with hot Calabrese peppers.  Fire!  A bit hot for most of us, though Luca devoured the entire thing.

We even saw Éowyn's doppleganger presiding over a pepperoni:

After a lovely meal capped off with tiramisu and "bumpy cake," we headed back home.  I was super excited that we were going to roll 233,000 together, about 20 miles from home.  It was dark, about 30 degrees, and starting to sleet a bit.  Aside from my announcement, we uneventfully rolled right through 233K and kept on rolling.  I tried to get a picture of us, but it was pretty dark:

Dark and Blurry

So here's a better one from the drive up to Grand Rapids.

Grand Rapids Bound!

To get the picture of the odometer, since it was so dark, I turned up the brightness on the instrument cluster to full.  Way too bright for night driving, but perfect for snapping a picture!

At the end of the day, it takes love and care and effort to get a vehicle to the moon.  With less than 4,000 miles to the moon, the grey van is far from perfect.  It consumes a bit of oil, and consumes a bit of power steering fluid.  The return spring on the exterior tailgate handle is but a memory.  The right sliding door is no longer powered.  The left sliding door only really works under power, so we don't really use it.  The front seats have som rips around the interior shoulder.  The body has its share of bumps and bruises.

But, the engine pulls cleanly to the redline.  It has a great set of Blizzaks for the winter and Michelins for the summer.  While noticeably slower than its 2019 stablemate, it is comfortable and smooth and is still quite good at doing all of the things a van is supposed to do - transport a bunch of people and their things in comfort, wherever they need to go.

In some ways, I prefer it to the 2019.  Mostly the steering - I like the slender wheel and the connection to the front wheels.  The 2019 has much better cornering and much more power, but the steering feel is just not as connected.  I also like the seating position of the 2008 a bit more - it feels like the beltline glass is lower all the way around, providing occupants a better view.

Either way, both vans are great at their people-moving mission, and I feel lucky to have over 333,000 miles in them!  And I feel extra-lucky that we hit two milestones in two different vans within the span of a week, fully loaded as a family of 6, continuing on life's journey.