Two hundred twenty thousand, five hundred miles of adventures. Just shy of 20 years.

Without a doubt, the best vehicle I’ve owned. So many 4×4 roads and camping trips. It would be great if I could list all of them. From the great plains to the pacific ocean. Fourteen thousand feet to 100 feet below sea level (there are places in the southern California deserts that are below sea level).

On the afternoon of New Years Eve, the snow had been falling for a couple of hours. I encountered some ice going around a curve in “the canyon” and spun about 90 degrees counter clockwise, now heading downhill sideways, hoping there was no oncoming traffic. When I suddenly regained traction, it took me forward into the canyon wall on the left side of the road. I was probably only going 30 MPH, but the rock wall was unyielding. The impact was hard enough to cause the airbags to deploy (aka explode).

Fortunately, no other vehicles were involved. The moments after the bag explosion were a little surreal. A couple of passerbys stopped to see if I was ok. A fight broke out between two other drivers who had stopped. This seems to reflect the current state of our society in general. Everybody is at each other’s throats. Everybody is on high horses. Everybody knows better than everybody else.

The Xterra was finally towed to the junkyard yesterday, where it will be stripped of everything valuable and what’s left over will smashed and recycled. Not much different from a human life if you’re an organ donor.

The Xterra actually had a name: Atomsk (from the anime FLCL).