Grand American Tour Day 27: Parting with a good’ol friend

Today is a day to say good bye. Good bye to an old friend who’s been absolutely reliable and kind to me. It’s given me lessons that I will continue to learn, apply and benefit from. It has given me experiences that I will never forget. It propelled me to places that I’d never have been to without it. Today, I am selling my car.

I guess this brings the sad memories of the time when I was about to leave Singapore for the US, when I couldn’t keep my dog and had to find her a better family. Today is that day that I have to relive. Today, I have to find the right owner for my car.

Well, it’s pretty straight forward. For the price that I am asking for, I think it’s a steal for the buyer. The first person made an offer, but I wanted to see if the second person will buy it with the asking price which is actually way below the market value. I am not looking to make money out of the deal, I just want to part it in a clean way. Sure enough, the second person didn’t take long to decide. In no time, I was at the DMV with them. I didn’t have to, but I wanted to. I want to take the last drive of my car, take off my plate and put on the new plate with my own hands and see it being driven off into the sunset with its new owners. I hope it is in good hands. I made sure they know that I loved this car, a lot. It’s definitely a moment for me, I hope the car will create memorable moments for them as well.

So this is it.

As I passed the car key to the new owner, I realized that there’s nothing left on my key chain.

When I left my job, I returned my office key.
When I left my apartment, I returned my room key.
When I sold my car, I passed on the car key.



My friend joked that I am no longer the lord of the ring. It’s true, they took my precious!

Well, when I made the decision to leave, I am giving up pretty much everything that defines my lifestyle. Everything from having a job to having a bed. Am I free now? I wouldn’t ever consider myself to be free, because there is no freedom. A person confines himself through the building of his lifestyle. Right now, I am deconstructing my lifestyle, not brick by brick, but with a demolition ball.

The car is gone. I’ve got no ride. So has this trip come to an end? I don’t know. I sat at my friend’s apartment for the rest of the day posting about the lost of my love. It’s not really to the point of grieving, but I just don’t have the heart to do anything else. I guess it’s because I am shedding myself and I feel naked. Plus, Seattle has been rather cold! May be tomorrow I will get over myself and stand up like a man. May be tomorrow, I will accept that the bus is my new best friend. May be tomorrow is the day when the new stage of my journey starts. May be I need to go to bed already.


Final mileage. 7007 miles on this trip.