200,000

Last week, on our way home from lovely Chincoteague, our Ol' Girl had a big day.

Westy -- our 1987 Volkswagen Vanagon, conversion to camper thanks to Westfalia (and truly, thank you very much, Westfalia) -- known to one and all as Westy -- hit a milestone.

199,993 . . .

199,993 miles! Whoo hoo!

199,997 . . .

We bought Westy in 2000, when she was a young girl of 13 and had -- get this -- 49,000 miles on her. She was, in those heady, glorious days, a Creampuff.

199,999 . . . 0

So we proceeded to live in her and drive her around the country eight times in the ensuing eight years, stopping for months at a time in some of the very coolest places the U.S. of A. has to offer.

199,999 . . . 1

Those were fabulous times. There were a couple not so fabulous times, too, but through no fault of Westy's.

199,999 . . . 7

She just kept chugging and chugging along, happily and serenely. Call us anthropomorphizers, but our Ol' Girl loved those years.

And then, all of a sudden . . .

200,000!

The Big 200,000 . . .

200,000 miles, baby.

. . . just like that.

The thing about hitting a milestone like this one is you can't necessarily predict or decide exactly where you'll be when the odometer busts her move.

We were driving by a CVS in Bethany Beach, Delaware.

And so we did the only thing that one can do, when one's beloved rig hits 200,000 well-earned miles driving along the Atlantic Coast.

We pulled right over and had ourselves a party.

Yay, Westy!

Whoo Hoot!

Nicely done, Ol' Girl!

(Maniacal Happy Westy Face)

We shared a Yuengling in Westy's honor -- we still had about 400 miles left to drive home, afterall -- and went along our merry way.

200,001 . . .

The thing about Westy? 200,000 is just another day for her. A fantastic day, a memorable day, a day for the ages, but she's a Yeoman, and she still has to drive us home.

200,002 . . .

Which is exactly what she did. We headed north, and took that 200,000 miles and added another 400.

And onward we go . . .