205,146

She's been a fine car, but today she drove away with Santiago, and it's time to say good-bye. So, in honor of our trusty Suburu, some facts and statistics:

Year built: 1999. Year purchased by Gregory family: 2002

Final mileage: 205,146

# of states (associated free or otherwise) lived in by car: 3. Colorado, California, Puerto Rico.

# of Ashby sisters who were primary drivers of car at some time: 3. Carrie, Claire, Rachel.

# of Gregory kids driven home from hospital in this car: All.

# of dents on TOP of car: 1, inflicted by Claire's roommate Liz somehow. (???)

# of dents in bumper: 1 (caused by sliding backwards down snowy hill into tree)

# of years a sunglasses case was stuck in the dashboard: 3 (until Claire got it out)

# of years clock remained unset: 3 (until Claire figured it out)

# of times engine totally replaced: 1

# of times Sarah drove to Chowchilla to rescue us while engine was being replaced: at least 1

# of life forms supported: 2,000,405 (4 Gregorys, 1 young plant growing out of wheelhub, 400 cockroaches and approximately 2 million mold spores growing on the backseat)

Did you know that Suburu means 'Pleiades' in Japanese? And that's why the Suburu symbol is seven little stars, just like the constellation.

Here are some pictures from her final day with us.

Last day. Appropriately, hood up.

I wasn't kidding about the plant.

Here you can see where we super-glued the mirror on about a year ago.

Wow.

Santiago says that he's taking her to his farm, where he's planning to cut the roof off and turn her into a Suburu tractor to haul hay for his horses. I don't know if he was just telling me that so I wouldn't cry, but I sure do hope that's the truth. Roll on, green Suburu.