Last weekend I bought a car. Actually, I bought it a week before that but I had to fly to Pennsylvania to pick it up which I just did last weekend. (Paying for a car but not getting to drive it for another 10 days is torturous.) The plan was to fly in Saturday, pick up the car, hang out with some people, and then Sunday morning pick up my little sister whom I had encouraged to skip class in favor of driving back to Colorado with me. My parent’s had parked the car at their place for the preceding week so I took the train from the airport out to their place. After hanging out for about 40 minutes they had to go to a wedding so I was left on my own. I was really tired – Thursday I had gone out with my boss to trade travel stories, Friday night I had gone to see my friend in the pit orchestra of the opera, and then woke up at 4:15 Saturday morning to get my flight – but I had a new toy and I was determined to have some fun.
Playing with my new toy
I went out and slipped the key in the ignition. Twisting it forward I watched the needles rise and then fall back to idle. I hit the accelerator a couple times just to hear it, and then pushed it into first. I was on my way.
I logged a lot of miles riding my bike on the small twisty back roads around my parent’s house so I have most of them memorized, and they are absolutely perfect for an all wheel drive turbo charged car with low air pressure in the tires. I drifted it though a couple corners in Evansburg State Park, staying on the accelerator until the last second when I’d come off the gas and the car would straighten itself out with a little wiggle and shimmy. After deciding I had a pretty fun car I headed back.
Road trip starts
My sister decided she’d rather start the trip Saturday night after she got out of a concert so I met up with a couple old friends that evening, tried to get some sleep, and then picked her up at the train station. I got a little lost leaving town but soon we were on the PA Turnpike headed west.
I bought the car without an electronic key so after topping off the tires and filling up on gas I locked the car from the inside and walked to the rest area for a bite to eat. What I didn’t realize was that the button on the inside of the car sets the alarm, and the regular metal key doesn’t unarm it. At about 3:00am, in the middle of a truck stop with a lot of people trying to sleep, I set off my alarm about 8 times in a row. After a desperate Google search and borrowing some tools from the gas station attendant I was able to start the car with out it freaking out and we were on our way again.
Chicago
Not much happened between Philly and Chicago. The radio worked, cruise control worked, turbo worked, it was beautiful. We hit some bad fog in State College but that was about it. We got into Chicago around 5 where we were meeting two of my friends for dinner – Scott and Sarah. Scott I knew since elementary school and Sarah I met in Ecuador so it was awesome to see both of them completely removed from the context of our introduction. Sarah had to work at a restaurant so Scott, his girlfriend, my sister, and I all just sat in her section and caught up as she walked back and forth.
After dinner it was back to the road. I really wanted to run the cruise control at 125mph all the way through Iowa and Nebraska but since my license plate had expired in 2004 I thought it’d be best to avoid getting pulled over. Rebecca drove for a while so I was freed up to do important things like make faces when we passed the Google Streetview car. She stepped it up though by stalling the car in front of him at a tollbooth.
Colorado
We cruised into Boulder around 3:00 on Monday afternoon but I wanted to show Rebecca the mountains. It always amuses me how flatlanders see the first row of the foothills and marvel at “the mountains.” I had to tell her we weren’t there yet. We started up the canyon before turning off and flogging the car up Magnolia towards Nederland. Mmm, dirt roads.
By the time I dropped my sister off at the airport around midnight I was seriously worried about falling asleep and crashing my brand new car.
Weather
Last year I was commuting about 45 minutes in each direction by motorcycle when I bought my GTI. Literally the day after I bought it rain started falling and didn’t stop for a full week making me very happy I had 4 wheels and a roof over my head. This time I got to Colorado Monday afternoon and less than 24 hours later it was sleeting and soon we had just under a foot of snow on the ground. I don’t want to get soft so I rode my bike to work anyway - well I don't want to get soft and I haven't bought an ice scraper for the windows yet. By the second day I was able to use a plastic ruler to clear the car. I can’t wait to drive it though a blizzard on the way to go skiing.
Fall foliage and fog near State College, Pennsylvania
Early morning in the midwest. I think its pretty as long as I'm leaving at 80mph.
Google Streetview car cruising down the highway
The sun sets over the mountains looking at Nederland, Colorado.
My car under a couple inches of snow.
