It was a complete joy getting to Oklahoma because of the car I drove! A brand new +Dodge Charger, nicknamed Blanca after the Street Fighter video game guy. There are no words to describe the utter delightfulness which grew into a deep passion, a deep wild urge being reawakened within me, if you will. I give you insight, but remember that these are only words. You MUST drive one to KNOW what I am talking about.
When I first glimpsed Blanca I was not impressed. I had been spoiled by my Tiburon named Achilles who had performed above and beyond the call of duty. My head was not easily turned when it came to cars. I was satisfied.
The luggage of 4 women going on a month long trip fit easily into the trunk. Wow! When I got in the drivers seat and looked at everyone around me, there was a inter dimensional warp of some kind. Everyone was so far away. We had room and it felt like I had to yell into the back seat to talk. I don't know how they did it, but the outside was not as big as the inside. This could be the topic of a whole new discussion on how never to judge a book by it's cover, or how WE are so huge inside our bodies like +Jill Bolte Taylor describes in her +Ted Talk on
+YouTube.
So I am sitting there, somewhat mind-blown, looking at the controls. That's when I got really excited. The seat molded completely to my body I felt like I was in the ultimate driving video game, except in this one we could all die or be maimed. I calmed myself down, back to reality...MUST drive carefully, defensively, protect the innocent. I looked back at the passengers in the rear view mirror. Little did they know the danger they were in. Ha ha ha. I felt like laughing manically as I took off down the road, but I didn't want to scare them.
I wrote an ode to Achilles in my heart that day. I mean, how can you love two cars at the same time? I am a one car woman. I still love Achilles for all the good times we had. He was, uh, IS a good car, but my heart has been turned by Blanca. What to do? What to do? My full intentions at that moment were to go out and buy a new
+Dodge +Charger.
When I hit the freeway, here in So Cal I immediately had to find out the truth about Blanca. It wasn't my choice. A truck, a big truck cut me off and since we would have been squashed like a pancake against the wall if I had put on my brakes, I sped up. Whew! Blanca came to the rescue. Talk about a passing gear! No lag time here. Whoosh! Blanca swept us away to safety. We were out of danger! Swept? No. Flash forwarded or quantum tunneling would be more accurate. Blanca's amazing ability would save us from quite a few close calls on our way to the Sooner state.
I almost cried when we had to turn Blanca back in to the car rental office. I heard he went on to Indiana, maybe he even made it all the way to New York! The guy at the car rental place who drove us, in Blanca, back to our hotel thanked us profusely for bringing such a great car out to lil' ol' Oklahoma. I was jealous. I still miss him.
We did rent a few cars for the weekend. I was not impressed. Okay, they are better than walking, but deserve no honorable mention whatsoever. No inter dimensionality. No "to infinity and beyond" passing gear, which was so dear to my heart and reminded me of being a kid learning to drive in a old clunker +Ford +Fairlane with it's amazing (very similar to Blanca's) passing gear and beating a +Corvette in a race.
One of the cars was a wanna be stick shift. I didn't understand. Either you go all the way and feel that car beneath your finger tips as you change gears, or not. I still don't understand, what kind of person would want a car like that? It's like saying you climbed +Mount Everest when in actuality... you didn't. Don't live life as a wannabe. Either you do it or don't do it and when you look in the mirror at yourself, you will be able to look yourself in the eye, straight on.
Please don't even ask about the car we drove back home. I dubbed the car "Duh" and it's trusty side-kick (it's GPS), "Ding-dong". The cruise control went from snail patrol to "Oh My God we're gonna die on that curve" control. I have never been in a car with such leeway in it's cruise control. I normally set my cruise control at the speed limit and relax because I know "I'm cool", NO worries about getting a ticket, cruising along and enjoying life. This car was a nightmare. I had to actually drive without cruise for most of the trip which is a bummer for long distances. I still have a cramp in my foot. My fingers still throb from trying to control the cruise from the steering wheel and getting it to obey. The horse I rode recently was more obedient, and he wasn't really.
All in all, the beginning of the trip left me pretty high and it was pretty easy, for me, to dismiss the experiences with those other cars since I KNEW that there was a better car out there. Hope always gives us something to look forward to. It can help in the deepest, direst of situations. When you are out on that road of life and the wind is blowing, the clouds are dark and you can see those wispy clouds just ready to turn into a tornado, HOPE is there. Hope that we won't have to go through the tornado, but if we do, we are prepared for the worst!
