Accidents, Mistakes, & Other Bloopers
Half-assed photo of cattle I took, from the driver’s seat, driving at high speed, like a fool, somewhere in Western Nebraska. A beautiful state that never, ever ends.
Half
Below, an ever-updating list of road trip foul-ups:
1) Left my huge bag of snacks and emergency food on the driveway at my first stop. This included the usual junk food, protein bars, and healthy snacks, plus supplies to sustain me, should I find myself on some desert highway with a broken-down car with nary even a jackrabbits to feast upon. Damn.
2) Lost my cherished traveling companion/guardian angel, which had sat beside me in the car and on the bedside table wherever I stayed. My Dad carved this is a three-inch-tall figure out of whalebone when he was up doing research in Alaska. It was supposed to be my mother, waiting impatiently in Henderson, Nevada, for me to be born. Distraught, I texted Alexander, my host in Swanton, Ohio. He wrote right back: He’d found it beside the bed in my yurt, and promised to mail it to my son in LA right away. Bless him. Miss you, Pregnant Mom Totem.
3) Heading out after my fourth stop, I directed Google Maps to my next stop, then reconsidered, opened the Apple phone map to find a coffee shop near me. On the way to Ruby’s, .3 miles away, I kept getting conflicting directions: Go North on Hwy X. Turn left onto Y street. Go South on Hwy X. Turn right onto Y street. I don’t even want to tell you how many times I circled the block before I figured out that I’d left the Google Map directions on, leaving my phone to play two sets of directions simultaneously! When I finally shut off Google Maps and arrived at Ruby’s, only to discover a joint offering pool tournaments and tattoos. Perhaps also coffee. I didn’t check.
4) Before I drove my new car off the lot, I neglected to check whether the oil and fluids had been checked, tires rotated — you know, the usual stuff you do before a road trip. As a result, I cranked up the car on Day 2 to find displayed on my dash: “Maintenance: Oil and Filter.” Thanks, CarMax.* I finally got my oil changed five days later, at a truck stop near Kylerstown, PA. But wait, there’s more. A few miles down the road, another notice: Maintenance: [image of something resembling an orange slice]. Awesome. The Nissan manual had no mention of this symbol, which I eventually figured out has something to do with my tires. Rotation? It’s Day 12 now, and I still haven’t had that checked.
* CarMax definitely should have changed the oil and rotated the tires — or at least told me that it would need doing — before allowing me to sail off into the sunset. However, everything else about my transaction was great, and I love my Nissan Rouge. And no, neither CarMax nor Nissan have paid me to say this. Yet.
