'Prince of odometers' pulls off this perfect number sequence in the family minivan
John Price enlisted the help of his family to strike odometer gold
A North Carolina man has created a piece of odometer perfection.
"For whatever reason, a couple of months ago, I got the idea to combine the main odometer with the trip meter and see if I could get a full set of digits from 1 to 0," explained John Price to As It Happens host Carol Off.
Price, who self-describes as both "math-y" and "a little bit obsessive," enlisted his family's help to make a plan to get their Honda Odyssey to a state of perfect alignment.
First, his 11-year-old son, a "numbers guy" himself, did some quick calculations.
"My son dutifully did the subtraction and figured out that at 122,667 miles you would need to hit the reset button [on the trip meter], and maybe a few weeks to a month later, you'd have to take the picture," said Price.
That fateful moment came last week, when the family was returning home from a funeral.
Just as they'd planned, Price's wife Amy pulled off the road when they were a few miles short, driving slowly up and down a quiet service road and then pulling off in a parking lot as it got into "the final tenths" of miles.
"We were a little bit worried that someone was going to notice us and think that we were trying to do something like case [a nearby] warehouse or something," he joked.
In an instant, the numbers clicked into place.
The photograph was taken, "there was a lot of celebration, then that was about it," said Price.
The hardest part, he said, was remembering to do it.
"I'm a bit number crazy, but I certainly don't drive around all day, every day thinking about my odometer."
It was only after posting the picture to Facebook that he realized that people were interested in the fine art of odometer photography.
"I thought it was just me being odd," he laughed.
Price doesn't have any follow ups planned, but did speak reverently of a man on the internet who'd managed to line up not only his odometer and trip meter, but his digital speed read out.
"If I'm the prince of odometers, this guy's the emperor of odometers," said Price.