Two interesting things happened tonight.
- I sold the van
- I finally took my wedding ring out of the cup holder in my van after three years
As part of the divorce settlement, I got the fully paid off 2016 Dodge Caravan. My goal was to drive that thing into the ground and I think I’ve nearly succeeded.
It’s got 175,000 miles on it, the check engine light comes on sometimes, the radio doesn’t work and today the motor for the passenger power window broke – the window is permanently open. Luckily I live in Arizona.
Registration and insurance is coming due pretty soon and I can’t be bothered to pay for them so I’m dropping the van off at Carvana this weekend.
The big red van holds a few bad memories for me so I’m glad to be letting it go. One bad memory is looking in the rear view mirror at Trey when I was driving the kids home from Charlotte after a visitation weekend. Trey had her headphones on gazing out the window thinking of who knows what – it’s a memory that won’t go away.
The second bad memory is when I spontaneously packed up my van with most of my belongings and drove across country from Charlotte to Arizona.
This morning I was trying to remember that crazy day and all of the things I left in my Charlotte apartment. I left a kitchen table, kitchen chairs, couch, nightstand, dresser, wall length mirror, office chair and probably some other things I’m forgetting.
Three days later I arrived in Arizona and called the apartment manager and told him I’m not coming back so he can keep my stuff in exchange for letting me break the last couple months of my lease. He agreed.
The night we told the kids about our divorce I got in that same big red van and drove down the driveway for the last time. When I got to the interstate I took my wedding ring off and put it in the cup holder in my door – where it sat unclaimed until tonight.
I have no idea what to do with it.
