Other things about Leslie's Accord that I discovered a few minutes in: The dashboard lights don't work, the right side mirror is warped and cracked, the driver's seat doesn't slide back. But the air conditioning was fixed and the headphone jack she installed earlier that day worked beautifully. Good enough. Driving her car reminded me of my own 1997 Accord, which was in a similar state before we gave it away earlier this year. Perhaps illogically, I have no real concerns that the car will break down somewhere along the way. I tend to take a "if I don't see/think there's a problem, there isn't one" philosophy with vehicles.
The scraping was a concern though. Leslie's initial thought was that there was too much weight in her trunk. While a hundred or so extra pounds didn't seem like it would affect much, it made logical sense that luggage needed to be jettisoned. So instead of heading for I-80 and the open road, we found ourselves at a slow moving FedEx in the Financial District, preparing to ship two of Leslie's bigger bags across the country.
Despite waking up at five, we didn't actually leave the city until seven. The sun was up and there were still seven hundred miles to go. As we shot across the Bay Bridge, the car did it again. Bump, scrape, scrape. Oh well, what's the worst that could happen? Something drops from the undercarriage? A tire pops?
Lessons learned during the first day's worth of driving. The groves lining Bakerfield are pistachio trees. That's what we've decided after ruling out apricot and olive. Also, in shocking news, Bakersfield is California's ninth largest city and the 51st largest city in the United States. It is also home to the world's largest ice cream plant. Impressive right? In reality Bakersfield took five minutes to drive through. What other sorts of towns are we going to come across if Bakersfield is a relative metroplis? I'm excited to find out.
Lesson two: My co-pilot has a lead foot and despite being a recent law school graduate, has absolutely no regard for driving restrictions. After being pulled over for speeding, she expressed annoyance at getting caught at only 20 mph over the limit and then she told the officer that it seemed wrong that there was no ticket amount on her paperwork. "Well that just seems ridiculous! Don't you know how much it will be?" The officer was not swayed by her indignation.
Seeing as she's accrued a ticket in only three hours of driving, the over/under for number of citations Leslie will accumulate on this trip is three. Lay down your bets now people. I've also dubbed her car "The Black Hole" because so far she's lost or misplaced her eye mask, her cell phone, sunblock, and a few more items despite the fact that we've only exited the car like twice. At the end of this trip, when she cleans everything out, there's going to be a pile of goodies shaken out.
A thirteen hour drive, one time change, and two stops for food later, we pulled into our country inn at eleven. Before the trip I looked into our audio book options. I thought something intellectually stimulating would keep us engaged. After downloading stuff like The Souls of Black Folk, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Don Quixote, the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and the Communist Manifesto, I'm pretty sure none of them will be used as the passenger is just going to knock out if we put these on. Music and podcasts it is!
No comments:
Post a Comment