Farewell to NOT*BLU

This is a "Wander" post – not a "Ponder" post – because it involved traveling. The traveling was not by us, but rather by my old faithful car, a 2003 red Pontiac Grand Prix, affectionately called NOT*BLU. The following photo is from the last time she was parked in our driveway prior to her journey halfway across the country.

When we bought the car nineteen years ago, I chose a bright red color. All our our previous cars had been a reserved, conservative shade of blue. I wanted to shake it up a bit and also get vanity plates to make a statement. I played around on the California DMV website but, just about every name I tried with the word red or some variation of red, came back with a message that the letter sequence was not available. It was a frustrating experience similar to when picking a password and so many are rejected for one reason or another. It was our daughter Robin who came up with the name NOT*BLU back then. It was perfect, it was available, and it had the double entendre that, with NOT*BLU's sun roof and CD player, I was not blue when driving it.

With the purchase of our new 2021 Toyota Avalon (see post dated 6/21/21), the time had come to say farewell to NOT*BLU. I was not emotionally ready to abandon her at the dealer ship as a next to nothing trade-in for the new car. We thought instead we might donate her to the Make-A-Wish foundation and were set to do that when Robin expressed an interest in having the car out in Oklahoma. The paperwork for transferral was more complicated and scheduling the pickup took more effort than a mere donation would have; Make-A-Wish would have come within 24 hours for the car and handled all the paperwork. But I was pleased my car would be going to a good home. Here is NOT*BLU on the driveway next to her successor, the Avalon, which has not been given a name as yet. 

I texted Robin and Jeremy the picture with a rhetorical question and here was their reply about me and the cars.

Because the trailer transport vehicle could not turn around in our cul-de-sac I drove NOT*BLU out to our nearest cross street with a straight, more accessible layout. I parked her under our corner street sign. Then I took a photo of the ramp she would be climbing to reach her position on top for a great view during her travel. She would be the second of seven vehicles to make the journey so she would not be lonely.

I made movie of her ascent and uploaded it to this post.

NOT*BLU left Livermore on a Thursday August 19th and arrived three days later in Oklahoma City on Sunday, August 22nd. Robin sent confirming text messages and photos.

Robin registered the car with the Oklahoma DMV and got new plates, actually called "tags" in Oklahoma speak. The first three letters are "KSL" which inspired the new name, Kessel Run.

Robin, Jeremy, and their kids are Star Wars fans. KSL made them think of Kessel Run. Per a Star Wars fandom website

The Kessel Run was one of the most heavily used smuggling routes in the Galactic Empire. Han Solo claimed that his Millennium Falcon "made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs". A parsec is a unit of distance, not time. Solo was not referring directly to his ship's speed when he made this claim. Instead, he was referring to the shorter route he was able to travel by skirting the nearby Maw black hole cluster, thus making the run in under the standard distance. By moving closer to the black holes, Solo managed to cut the distance down to about 11.5 parsecs.

Kessel Run of movie fame is probably a modified namesake of a famous astrophysicist Donald J. Kessler, formerly a NASA scientist, known for his studies in space debris. I researched the preceding information based on Robin's text messages.

And it looks like he enjoys driving it, even if he is not skirting black holes.

As a tiny bonus they also got a Beach Boys CD I'd inadvertently left in NOT*BLU's CD player. I enjoyed her while I had her, and I was "not blue" when driving her!