Ode to my Passport

I know, I know, its just a conglomeration of steel and plastic, but I've been driving the Honda Passport since I was 16! That's...42% of my life! All in all, I have 195,000 miles on the SUV and its taken me to and through 26 states.

I drove an '88 Civic Hatchback for the first 8 months of my driving life - tinted the windows, added a chrome exhaust pipe, and squeezed in a 4.5 foot wide subwoofer. It was fun too and, dare say, I caused a lot of trouble in it after soccer practices "getting pizza" when I was really getting a cart of eggs. Nuph said.

Then my folks wanted me in a "safer" car with airbags and the such, so they handed me down the 95.5 Passport. It didn't have the high schooler zip I sought after, but it only took me a nanosecond to realize I could fly up icy dirt roads at 60 mph and skid around steep corners on my way to the trailhead for an Adventure Club outing. Maybe making the 14-year-old freshmans nearly piss their pants in the back seat made me evil, but I enjoyed it.

Let me just preface and say I've never been in a moving vehicle accident with that car. It's been rock solid and so has my driving record. Except for when I ripped off someone's bumper with the 12-foot long Uhaul trying to move my crap from Seattle to Boulder. But that was the Uhaul's fault, not mine. And I've only hit non-moving obstacles, like trees, rocks, and parked minivans. Also neither the Passport's nor my fault.

So why this memoir? The repair bills sky-rocketed to keep it going and I had just about driven it to the ground. So I traded it in, but it seems sacrilegious to talk about the new car on the block. Only time will tell if it will provide as many memories as the Passport.

I won't bore you with a 12-year narrative, but here are a few photo-documented highlights:

My first big road trip - Erich and I took a post-high school graduation trip driving down the Pacific coastline from WA to SoCal, skimboarding and camping along the way:

Just one of the gnarly approaches required for reaching trailheads in the Cascades - thank you Passport for kicking ass:

Courtney and I camping out at the Gorge for the first Sasquatch Festival in 2002:

Erich joined me the next year when I drove the Passport from Seattle to New York in one 45 hour push. This is what I remember from the trip:

Steve and I looking grungy after two weeks of climbing through Wyoming on my return voyage from my sophomore year at Cornell:

Summer of 04 I hit the 100k mark on a trip to Cannon Beach, OR, my favorite camping spot. My all-time road trip partner, Erich, was appropriately there to enjoy this moment:
Final cross-country road trip from NY to WA with Gerry, where we met up with Vijay on his trip back east for a few days of climbing at City of Rocks, ID:

I soloed the drive to the Bugaboos trailhead to meet Kyle, Brian, and Jeff for a week of climbing. The chicken wire is porcupine protection:
Mt. Shasta on my move from Seattle to Colorado in 2009. I stopped in Malibu to pick up Arun "on the way" and got an average of 12 mpg with that Uhaul in tow:

On a romantic Valentines Day trip with Arun to Wyoming when the temps were subzero:

Hat's off pal, you'll be missed