When one speaks of a favorite piece of photo equipment, it’s usually a reference to a camera body or lens; a tool used to capture an image.  Sometimes, it’s something like a tripod or backpack; a tool used to support the equipment needed to capture the image.

In this case, though, I’m talking about a “tool” used to take me and my equipment to places where I could capture images.

On August 24, half-way up Mount Rainier, my 1991 Honda Accord finally gave up the ghost, its engine blown.  Over eighteen years, and 429,653 miles, “Big Blue” had carried me, my family, and my equipment everywhere from up a dirt road to Mowich Lake to 400-mile “day trips” out to the Olympic peninsula to motion-picture shoots all over western Washington (not to mention the more mundane tasks like commutes to day jobs and shopping trips).

(For this post, I went through my files, trying to find a photo of my Accord.  Unfortunately, I guess I was too busy shooting nature to have taken the time to get a good photo of something human-made, particularly something I figured would last forever.  The best shot I could find was from a trip to North Cascades National Park in 2005, when it found itself as an inadvertent perch for a gray jay.)

Sure, it would have been possible to replace the engine.  But it had hit that point in its life where small to not-so-small things were failing on a regular basis (over the past few months, I’d had to replace both the clutch and starter), and it had a laundry-list of costly maintenance items needing attention soon.  It was clear that, to continue a useful life, my Accord would need to belong to someone with a mechanic in the family.  So, I gave it to the Honda specialist at the local Greg’s Japanese Auto (highly recommended for those in the Seattle area), so he could restore it for a new driver in his family.  And, as for me?  Well, I now have a 1999 Accord sitting in Big Blue’s former place.  It only has 95,000-odd miles on it, so it should hopefully be good for a decade or so…