In Memoriam

After our stop in Prairie Dog Town, we zipped over to St. Louis and stayed with friends there, and found their little pocket of St. Louis to be quite nice. Then we sped over to Louisville for lunch, a sad suburb of Cleveland for dinner, an evening of camping near Erie, Pennsylvania, and a mid-day arrival in Acton, Massachusetts. Nothing of note happened.

However, in Acton, we picked up the new official staff vehicle, and parted ways with the trusty baby-blue 1997 Nissan Sentra that had been serving all our automotive needs since 1998 or so. In that time, this amazing little piece of Japanese engineering drove across the country at least four times, hitting the highways of no fewer than 43 of these United States, not to mention five foreign countries. It endured no small amount of abuse from the ice of New England, the double-track trailhead access roads of the American West, the towering highway speed bumps of Mexico, and nearly every crater-pocked mile of Guatemala's urban and rural thoroughfares. This little economy car bounced across roads that would make 99% of American SUV owners slowly shift into reverse and head back to Starbucks, tail between legs.

We don't say that to boast about our departed companion. We only mention it in tribute, because it's the truth. Here's a map that proves it (well, sort of), the trips your correspondents happen to remember right now marked in blue:


(While representatives of Nalgene are apparently still mulling over their response to my unsolicited testimonial regarding their fine products, the Holla would welcome any similar monetary considerations from the good people of Nissan. Don't be shy!)