Foam

Please, let me introduce you to a close friend of mine.

My trusty steed.

She has about 160,000 miles, a radiator leak and a slight oil burn. She pulls to the right enough to hurt my wrist while driving long distances. She's missing two hubcaps, one on each side, so that it looks like gaping black holes over the tires. She was sideswiped on an Indian reservation during a costume party and has a huge gash on her passenger door; the key no longer unlocks it on that side. She was pushed into a ditch a month later and needs two people to open her hood; she has a crooked grin for the same reason. Her tags are expired and I've been jumping through hoops for months to get her registered in Texas. Her insides smell a little like shoes (that's entirely my fault). I've invested almost twice her purchase price in fixing bits and pieces, towing and legal costs.

She has a tape deck.

She also gets between 34-40 mpg and is almost unfailingly reliable (except for a strange battery incident no one can explain). And despite all the heck and neglect I've put her through, she starts, runs smoothly, makes it up hills and passes semis. I live out of her and have had more than one good night's sleep in her. If needed, she can hold pretty much everything I own outside of my parents' house. She made it to Montana from Texas, then to southern Colorado, back to Montana again, and a successful Oregon/ Montana roundtrip in 4 days and returned me again to Texas; all of this in 5 months. I even actually like her tape deck because it makes books on tapes a literal and inexpensive investment.

I have never been so attached to a vehicle in all my life. Only Ol' Blue has come close.



And I will be relying on her to help me complete the research for this book. She'll be an important character in the whole adventure and it feels important to introduce her now.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Foam.