It Was 100,000 Miles Ago
I probably weighed a few pounds less than I do today. Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints were still celebrating their Super Bowl XLIV victory over the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning. My children were both in elementary school. Now they are both teenagers.
My God…my daughter Riley turns 16 in a few days!
It’s been 1,789 days since my car’s odometer rolled over into a six-digit mileage. It was a “blog-worthy” milestone back then seeing the green digits on my dusty dashboard flip from 99,999 to 100,000 because it represented so many other things that change in the blink of an eye.
In Front Of Us…Yet Measuring Where We’ve Been
Our odometer in our car is something that is in front of us almost every day but unlike the windshield it sits below, it tracks where we’ve been and not where we are going. We often take for granted that it’s there and we don’t really recognize it until something major comes along. Sure, we might make a note of it every 3,000 miles or so when it’s time for an oil change or we might jot down the distance travelled for a business trip for tax purposes, but how often do you really pay attention to the odometer during the regular course of your day?
- Check your speed? Of course. It’s critical to know when to accelerate or when to slow down.
- Pay attention to your fuel gauge? You bet. We all need to make sure that from time to time we fill our tanks with the energy, excitement, passion and fuel we need to reach our destination.
- Acknowledge the “Check Engine” light that tells us when it’s time for a tune up or some diagnostic help from the mechanics in our business.
And the miles just keep rolling on…
A few days ago my odometer hit another milestone – 200,000. It’s been 4 years, 10 months and 25 days from the first 100,000 threshold. I had pulled off the freeway on my drive home from teaching in Cincinnati so I could snap the photo of the moment the numbers rolled over. I was crawling slowly down a country road with no traffic or any signs of life other than some ravens steeling themselves against the January wind of a barren soybean field. Dusk was falling so with my iPhone clutched in my hand between my steering wheel and the dashboard, I waited for the moment to happen. In a split second the clean look of the ‘2’ followed by five zeroes suddenly illuminated the display.
Act 200K; Scene 1
And just like that, a new journey began. I turned around in the next empty driveway I saw ahead and drove back to the freeway. It was a little less than a mile back to the South, headed into the setting sun, before I turned West to catch the on-ramp home.
I thought about the trips back and forth from Columbus to Cincinnati, up to Cleveland or over to Dayton. There aren’t many parts of The Buckeye State that haven’t seen the underside of this car. I’ve driven to Chicago for a fun weekend with my Gator buddies and down to Nashville a few times to work and play with friends. Those last 100,000 miles included trips to Pittsburgh and Lexington, Louisville and Detroit. It’s also been trips to Mom’s house and the golf course, the Blue Jackets games with Riley and the baseball diamond with Ryan. I’ve driven friends and strangers and hauled treasures and trash. The miles have added up quickly over open stretches of highway and ticked along slowly as I’ve inched through snow or heavy traffic.
It sure is neat to think of all the relationships I’ve built, the problems I’ve solved and the fun I’ve had over the last 100,000 miles. But it’s even better to prepare for the next big milestone.
Buckle up. It’ll probably be here before you know it.