Trusty Rusty Suburban

Near the middle of last week, my Suburban and I hit a milestone.  We've been together a long time; DH and I bought the Suburban (brand new) in March 2005 to replace our Astro van since our eldest son no longer fit into the third row seating of the Astro very well being 6' 2" tall at age 15 and we were looking ahead to having a batch of tall teenagers to drive around in the future (the other three kids were, at the time, 12, almost 11, and 8).  And drive we did.

In addition to the twice daily run to the Lutheran day school my kids attended through 8th grade, we drove to sports.  We drove to the normal grocery store, doctor and dentist appointments, church services on Sundays (and during Advent and Lent also on Wednesday evenings).  I drove to work at the horse farm(s). 

We drove to Walt Disney World in Florida.  We drove a few hours east and north into part of Ontario, Canada.  We drove to Oregon and back in 2008 pulling a 30' camper (and yes, I piloted that long vessel during about half of the trip, as DH & I took turns driving the 3000+ miles from our house to our destination via a few places like The Badlands, Yellowstone, and Glacier National Park along the way).  We drove to South Carolina and back several times during the couple of years that DS1 and family lived there.  We drove to the far northern edges of Michigan in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan's Upper Peninsula many, many times since September 2010 when DS2 had his first college visit at Michigan Tech (which became his alma mater, and then once he was graduated, DD2's alma mater). We drove to Pennsylvania.  We drove to Minnesota when DD1 briefly attended college over there.  It's hauled tractors, and hay, and other vehicles.  It's even been group transportation to a high school prom with a high schooler in the driver's seat!

That Suburban and I, we've been places together.  That driver's seat is, to me, like a pair of comfortable old jeans.  As the years have gone by, and four teenage drivers have all taken their turns behind the wheel, it has collected a few dents and dings.  It's getting a little rusty in the rocker panels.  It is now, now that the 2019 model year vehicles are available for sale, officially 14 years old.  It has a lot of miles on it.  A LOT.  Like, this happened on Wednesday afternoon:

This mileage has been my personal goal since the odometer rolled 150,000 during DS2's junior year of high school (2009/2010); at which time DH assured me that Suburbans had great engines and transmissions and ours could easily make it to 250,000 miles.  So, that became my goal.  I would not even consider replacing the Suburban until we hit 250k.

And do you know what?  I'm still not ready to replace it.  Because it still runs like a scalded dog.  It still starts up the first time, every time that I put the key in the ignition.  It might squeak and rattle a little, but that's all the aging body--hey, I am starting to squeak and rattle a little too!  Mechanically, it is fit as a fiddle.

So now my Suburban and I have a new goal.  We are going for three.  Three Hundred Thousand Miles, that is.  By my rough calculations, based on my current driving habits (and the fact that we now have our pick up for long distance trips), it should be a good two or three years before that number shows up on the dashboard display.