"End of an Odyssey" (Feb. 2011)

Hard goodbyes, turning pages, and faith in the soul of a machine.

It's over. Not the Super Bowl. Not the winter of our great discontent, which seems to have socked much of the south and east with the fury it unleashed on us in the mid-Atlantic states last winter. It is the end of a long and beautiful relationship that is on my mind.

I've signed the papers. Essentially said my goodbyes. My faithful Honda Odyssey, all 249,000 miles of road work behind it, is retiring. Most people who drive as much as I do will tell you that their relationship with a vehicle runs deep. One gets to trusting (or not) this mechanical steed probably in a similar way that a person might bond with his horse 150 years ago. For me, that bond runs through the heart.

Six years of touring, over 175,000 miles together, and not left on the side of the road dead once. A comfortable ride even in her advanced stages of wear. My home away from home - bed in the back for needed naps or a night's respite, myriad necessities and comforts stowed in the many thoughtfully-designed compartments. 25 miles or better to the gallon on the highway right to the end.

We just finished our last big trip together, to Texas and back; the final day a grueling 15-hour marathon in the wake of a massive storm, the final hours negotiating poorly plowed pavement on the 4-lanes where others had failed. Perhaps the most rock solid trip in bad weather I ever experienced in that van was that final crossing of the Blue Ridge after midnight, mere minutes after the road had been reopened and still littered with wrecked cars spun sideways in the travel lane and buried in snow. 

So now I am the owner of a new steed, and a massive new car payment. A 2008 Odyssey steps forward. We eye each other warily; me wondering if the van's turning radius is less than the magnificent minimum arc its predecessor could cut in its prime, it perhaps pondering if the best of its future adventures will be hauling rowdy kids to athletic practice. Our bonding or our disenchantment lie ahead of us, and while all of the kudos from Consumer Reports and Carfax tilt the statistics in a positive direction, there is no crystal ball or ironclad guarantee how it will go. I am grateful for the transition and the promise of long life and reliable transport, but I am sentimental about the end of a job so very well done.

It has been a wearying year of change and goodbyes. I've often said I picked the wrong career for someone who doesn't enjoy goodbyes, for I say them to people I care about and see too rarely all the time. The final ones are especially difficult for me. Yet that is by definition part of life - live long enough and one says many final goodbyes to cherished elders and beloved ancestors, as well as those who are gone far before their time.

Thankfully the end of an Odyssey doesn't mark the end of a journey, just of another chapter in the story. The page, and the odometer, turn. Whether I am completely ready or not.

Dedicated with love to my godmother, my Aunt Jennie Ronalter