96,0000 miles

 The van cruised beautifully through 96,000 miles as part of our trip home from Boston:

This ended up being our longest single-day drive.  Allison, Madeline, Enzo, and Sara grabbed breakfast from the Residence Inn on Tudor Wharf while I retrieved the van from the adjacent parking lot.  We loaded up and started rolling around 7 am.  

I made a wrong turn and we ended up driving out to Logan Airport, doing a quick loop through the arrivals area, before finally picking up I-90 and heading west.

We motored along, enjoying the light traffic while observing how jammed the lanes to Boston were on the morning commute.  We made a quick pitstop in South Hadley to visit Jason and his kids, and to pick up a couple of items we inadvertently left behind when we stayed with them at the beginning of the journey.  Unfortunately, Pam had to leave early to be part of an interview committee, so we didn't get to see her during this stop.  The Estes are a delightful group of people to spend time with, and we could easily have spent a couple hours or days just being together.  They are also super thoughtful, and packed us a little "cestino di viaggio" for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, I had a conference the next day and the road beckoned, so we said our farewells and hit the road:

Heading west, we uneventfully rolled through 96,000 miles west of Manchester, New York, in the Finger Lakes region.

Since this was Sara's first trip to the US, Allison and I decided to surprise everyone with a little side trip to Niagara Falls.  It only added about an hour or so to the trip, and it's definitely worth seeing.

After our break at the Falls, we pressed west.  We stopped for fuel and food, and after almost 16.5 hours, we arrived home.  Unintentionally, this ended up being our longest single day trip as a family.

The van did exactly what it was supposed to do.  It kept us entertained, safe, and comfortable regardless of weather conditions.  Over more than 2,500 miles, it returned almost 25 mpg.  It never ceases to amaze me how wonderfully competent it is.

Since the journey was over 950 miles, crossing a thousand mile milestone was bound to happen.  96K came and went uneventfully, just part of the fabric of the longest day.

95,000 miles

 Having missed 94,000 on this trip, I resolved to not miss 95,000, and I didn't:

Allison, Madeline, Enzo, Sara, and I were in the car.  The context for 95,000 was much more emotional.  We had spent the day on Narragansett Beach, by far my favorite beach in Rhode Island:

For the first time that I can recall, we spent the entire day on the beach, primarily because we hadn't been there in years, we brought a shade canopy, and took advantage of Salty's 2-for-1 lobster roll deal at the concession stand.  It's really hard to beat a lobster roll on the beach.

After our beach day, we headed to Hammond Hill to visit Cara and Colin.  This was the first time back since Allison's folks moved away, and none of us felt happy to be there without going "home" to 51.  Enzo was fully weeping, and Allison was similarly volatile.

We visited the horses, then headed to get pizza at Kingston Pizza, followed up with an ice cream from Brickley's Baron's.  We flipped 95,000 miles as we drove away from the horses and were climbing Gilbert Stuart Road.  Marking the milestone was an absolute footnote given the emotional load of the day.  If I didn't mis 94K, I probably would have missed 95K.

94,000 miles

 I missed it completely by about 40 minutes!

We hit 94,000 in the blue van embarking upon our 2025 camping trip to Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.  Allison, Madeline, Enzo, Sara (Gianna's daughter), and me hit the road early on a Friday morning.  It was raining when we departed, which I think is the first time we've ever set off on a road trip in the rain.

Olivia and Luca woke up early to see us off.

As is our routine for long road trips, we started heading east on I-80 and had breakfast in the car.  Perhaps because it was raining, perhaps because it was an atypical start (folks weren't immediately hungry), or perhaps because I was distracted and excited by the prospect of a road trip, I just flat missed the 94,000 milestone.  94K came and went on a long overall day:

I suppose it's like I've said before, we were just living our lives and enjoying the moment, so 94K came and went without fanfare.  The van was just the backdrop, the context for facilitating the journey.

Gym date!

 Allison and I had a gym date the other day.  It's one of my favorite things, we're both working hard, separately, but in the same space.  I headed out earlier than Allison, and caught the cars having a date of their own.  I composed a shot where the curves blend into each other and thought it was cool:

37,000 miles

 The Boxster turned 37,000 miles this past Thursday.

Once again, it wasn't an extraordinary or atypical drive.  In this case, I was taking Madeline to her evening lacrosse practice.  It was a gorgeous evening, top down, lovely weather.  

Actually, it was an extraordinary drive, because I'm increasingly aware that I won't need to drive her places.  In a couple of weeks, she will have her license and the ability to just go wherever she wants, whenever she wants.  I'll miss the car time with her.  I love being in the car with any of the kids.  I think as humans, we like being in motion.  Walking, bicycling, horseback, motorcycling, driving.  Being on a boat, a train, an airplane.  How do we soothe children to sleep?  By rocking them or walking around with them or going for a drive with them.  I really like being in motion with one of the kids, because there's a sense of movement and adventure and excitement that is just part of every journey.

Based on the mileage the night before, I was thinking Allison would roll 37,000.  However, when I got into the car, I saw:

Soon there will be a mileage milestone that I'll miss.  Hopefully, Allison will just blow past it because she will be just doing her thing, driving around, enjoying being in motion.

38,000 miles

 The GLI turned 38,000 miles today!

Strangely for me, I caught the milestone entirely by happenstance.  I was taking Madeline and Enzo to Prairie Winds Farm on my way to teach.  We'd just gotten off of 31 south, had snaked underneath 31 heading east on Kern Road, and had just turned south onto old 31 (931, Michigan Street) when I happened to glance at the dashboard.  38,000 miles had already rolled, so I quickly grabbed my phone to take the shot.

I'm trying to figure out why I wasn't more in tune with the mileage.  I think it was a combination of factors.  First, I was super low on gas and was doing the mental math to figure out if I could drop them at the farm, go to work, and make it to Costco without putting in a splash.  Secondly, I wanted to make sure the kids were on time.  Enzo was attending camp while Madeline was working.  Third, I suppose I was thinking a bit about the class I was going to deliver.

Either way, I'm glad I glanced down at the right moment and took the shot.  It was a drizzly, gray morning.  It was a delightful reprieve from the intense heat of the past couple of weeks.

As a footnote, I did make it to Costco.  I rolled in with 0 miles of estimated range remaining.  When I filled up the tank, it took an indicated 11.955 gallons.  The GLI has a 13.2 gallon tank, so it's good to know that even when the estimated range reads 0, there's about a gallon of cushion.  Conservatively, that's another 20 miles.  Good to know.

The only thing that matters

 Now for something completely different.  We've been taking care of my mom and father-in-law for a while.  We had both of them in our home until we could no longer support their needs.  For my father-in-law, the catastrophic event that resulted in moving him to a care facility was a stroke.  He went from walking the dogs with us on a Sunday to having a stroke Monday night/Tuesday morning.  Allison called me at work because she was unable to pick him up off the floor.

So began a week of intensive care.  We picked him up, changed him, bathed him, fed him, transferred him in a wheelchair, and generally took care of him.  As we were doing that work, it occurred to me that we were doing the same things taking care of him that we did when our kids were infants.  The infants and the stricken require the same thing - basic care and lots of love.

We were putting him to bed one evening and needed to slide him towards the head of the bed so he had enough space to lie down.  We could tell he was agitated and nervous.  He kept holding his head up instead of relaxing into the pillow.  I supported his head and rubbed his forehead and told him, "It's OK, you can relax, we've got you."

Now, historically, Warren isn't a super emotional guy.  He's more the quiet jokster type.  Anyway, once we got him to relax, I said, "OK Warren, you can relax and rest and go to sleep.  I love you."  Expecting no response, he shook me by turning his head, looking deep into my soul, and saying, "I love you too."

At that moment everything just snapped into focus.  The only thing that matters at the end of life is the same thing that matters at the beginning of life - love.  That's all there is.  And I'd argue that it's the only thing that matters throughout our lives.  It's just that we're human, and we get distracted by ego and desire and ambition and whimsy and passion and rage and all of the wonderful things that make us human.

I think we'd do well to keep love a little more front and center throughout.  I think we'd all be in a better place.