It’s been a long road for the yellow Volvo 240DL Wagon – 338,457 (original engine) miles and 25 years to be exact. She safely transported us through oppressive desert heat in the Utah salt flats and frigid snow and sleet in the Idaho Rocky Mountains. From the Santa Cruz beaches to the Albuquerque war zone; she covered every state west of the Rockies as well as Canada and Mexico. Not to mention teaching my sister, myself, and countless others how to drive. And all without any complaints! If anything was wrong, give it a week to let her figure herself out. If the engine was smoking, reattach the aluminum exhaust vent. If the engine wouldn’t start, re-plug the wire to the distributor cap. And if you wanted to get to “5th gear”, short the SOB over-drive wires together.Here is a quick snapshot of days in the life of the Volvo Ultimo: 
Andre and myself with Joe Mei lost deep in Mexico. You might wonder why the right fog light is torn off or the license plate is bent back. Simple explanation: we were climbing some mountains behind Borland and there wasn’t enough clearance between the front bumper and the ground.
Buried in Tahoe at Schmidty’s Aunt’s place near Homewood. Victors, Schmidty, and I managed to snap the chains but we ended up doing better without them anyway. 
The road to Punta San Jose in baja mex with NATE, ROB, granny, and sean. This is the intersection that Andre and I wish we would have found instead of taking some locals’ advice and driving the Volvo down a canyon, forging through a creek, driving straight through a crop field, and finding the “main” road after breaking down a fence. 
Checking the surf at 4mile with Eli (also the sight of cannon launcher testing – we hit that barn in the top left). 
Annual physical challenge: hike from the north rim of the Grand Canyon down to the river and back (30miles) in 24hrs. The results weren’t pretty. This was the day after hitting 300,000 miles and doing a couple victory donuts near the Four Corners. 
AMDAL upside down and chopped off after the D thanks to Eli and the De Laveaga crew.
And a couple Action Shots:
You may be asking yourself: ¿What was the fate of the Volvo Ultimo? Was it when the oil filter tore open after 2 engine mounts broke – possibly related to jumping her off the rail road tracks? Was it after nearly rolling her when sliding sideways at 40mph and hitting some concealed potholes? Was it after getting her stuck teetering in an 8’ ditched and having to pull her out with the Truck above Vine Hill elementary school? Was it from under-steer and crashing her into a fence on the way to Physics class? Or was it from filming Super Brodie or Abductions? No. No, No, No, and NO. The death of the Volvo due to god damn government regulations. The MAN killed the Volvo!!
R. I. P.
Andre and myself with Joe Mei lost deep in Mexico. You might wonder why the right fog light is torn off or the license plate is bent back. Simple explanation: we were climbing some mountains behind Borland and there wasn’t enough clearance between the front bumper and the ground.
Buried in Tahoe at Schmidty’s Aunt’s place near Homewood. Victors, Schmidty, and I managed to snap the chains but we ended up doing better without them anyway. 
The road to Punta San Jose in baja mex with NATE, ROB, granny, and sean. This is the intersection that Andre and I wish we would have found instead of taking some locals’ advice and driving the Volvo down a canyon, forging through a creek, driving straight through a crop field, and finding the “main” road after breaking down a fence. 
Checking the surf at 4mile with Eli (also the sight of cannon launcher testing – we hit that barn in the top left). 
Annual physical challenge: hike from the north rim of the Grand Canyon down to the river and back (30miles) in 24hrs. The results weren’t pretty. This was the day after hitting 300,000 miles and doing a couple victory donuts near the Four Corners. 
AMDAL upside down and chopped off after the D thanks to Eli and the De Laveaga crew. And a couple Action Shots:
You may be asking yourself: ¿What was the fate of the Volvo Ultimo? Was it when the oil filter tore open after 2 engine mounts broke – possibly related to jumping her off the rail road tracks? Was it after nearly rolling her when sliding sideways at 40mph and hitting some concealed potholes? Was it after getting her stuck teetering in an 8’ ditched and having to pull her out with the Truck above Vine Hill elementary school? Was it from under-steer and crashing her into a fence on the way to Physics class? Or was it from filming Super Brodie or Abductions? No. No, No, No, and NO. The death of the Volvo due to god damn government regulations. The MAN killed the Volvo!!
R. I. P.
1 comment:
Hilarious! (Tear) The end of an Era. My favorite times were spent in the middle seat between fighting Hil and Ollie and Truffle in heat! Good times!
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