Alice is now to property of Top Quality motors. After three years of faithful service, she has earned some time off. She got me to New Hampshire and back with no problems. She almost always got me where I needed to go. Remember the broken windshield? And the passenger footwell lakes? Remember the leaky roof? Scraping frost off the inside of the windshield? She may not sound like a joy to drive, but she was my first car and I loved her for every quirk. And I miss her manual transmission.
That's right. I'm back to an automatic. Javier insists on doing all the work and not letting me contribute to the driving. He has a tendency to drift to the left. He has a hard time getting up to speed on hills. And he grumbles a little when getting up to 70mph after a break at a rest stop or gas station. But he seems sturdy enough and has plenty of room. He also has an annoying security system. As if he has something to protect. Hah!
The process was stressful, let me tell you. I really wanted Alice 2.0-A 2005 Saturn Ion. Manual transmission. Black. A nice little car with one big problem. It was a salvage vehicle. Everything was going to be great. I was going to get a trade in on my old car, I was going to get a great deal with the bank (good interest, good monthly payment) and then we called Allstate. They would not insure the car. And with only 2 more days to get this whole thing taken care of I had no time to look for a new insurance provider.
So, Javier it is. I just hope he proves to be as sturdy in New England as Alice was. She was a real trooper.
I wont go into all the other little disasters that happened as I was trying to get this whole car things worked out. Just know that I never want to have to car search under a 5 day time crunch ever again.
In other news, I'm in Maine.
Yup.
Back in the North East.
I am currently using the spotty internet stolen from some neighbor who has wireless. It fades in and out. Sadie took the trip fairly well. Only one vomit. She does NOT like the car and would get super excited any time we pulled over.
I cannot BELIEVE how long it seems to take to get to Lafayette! Sorry Juli. I LOVE staying at your place but the last hour or so on the country highway takes FOR-EV-ER. Or maybe it just seems to when it's late, I'm tired, and I can only go 55mph. Oh well, I got there. Good times with Juli. Good breakfast! She made Strata. And then it was the longest solo drive of my LIFE. Boy, I tell you what. Over 12 hours, several stops, and a nap later I finally rolled into my hotel. It wasn't the nicest place in the world but it was sufficient for the price and for one night. I barely stayed awake for the ball dropping and then went to sleep.
And then it was a less long, less horrid drive through the rest of New York, into Mass., Through East New Hampshire and finally into Maine. It was wonderful to see "...mountains again, MOUNTAINS, Gandalf!" hehe.
Google maps fails. No big surprise there. Having looked at where I live with Emily on Google maps we had determined that the white house you could see from the road was NOT in fact where I was going to live and that the house had to be hidden behind the trees. Going on this, I tried to find the house behind the trees. It wasn't there. I could see the studio where Bonnie works but not a house. I saw a run down small thing that looked un-inviting. I was afraid that it was where I was going to live. But I finally called Bonnie and the directions she gave me led right to that house visible from the street that Google maps said was the wrong house.
I did a little moving in at first but not much.
I was tired.
I was sure to take Sadie out as much as possible. I brought my bedding up. Now I'm here.
P.S. I am finishing this post several days after I started it. I just wanted to break my update posts into smaller chunks. So a post will follow this one shortly on my orientation experience and thoughts on my first several days here.
I am currently using the spotty internet stolen from some neighbor who has wireless. It fades in and out. Sadie took the trip fairly well. Only one vomit. She does NOT like the car and would get super excited any time we pulled over.
I cannot BELIEVE how long it seems to take to get to Lafayette! Sorry Juli. I LOVE staying at your place but the last hour or so on the country highway takes FOR-EV-ER. Or maybe it just seems to when it's late, I'm tired, and I can only go 55mph. Oh well, I got there. Good times with Juli. Good breakfast! She made Strata. And then it was the longest solo drive of my LIFE. Boy, I tell you what. Over 12 hours, several stops, and a nap later I finally rolled into my hotel. It wasn't the nicest place in the world but it was sufficient for the price and for one night. I barely stayed awake for the ball dropping and then went to sleep.
And then it was a less long, less horrid drive through the rest of New York, into Mass., Through East New Hampshire and finally into Maine. It was wonderful to see "...mountains again, MOUNTAINS, Gandalf!" hehe.
Google maps fails. No big surprise there. Having looked at where I live with Emily on Google maps we had determined that the white house you could see from the road was NOT in fact where I was going to live and that the house had to be hidden behind the trees. Going on this, I tried to find the house behind the trees. It wasn't there. I could see the studio where Bonnie works but not a house. I saw a run down small thing that looked un-inviting. I was afraid that it was where I was going to live. But I finally called Bonnie and the directions she gave me led right to that house visible from the street that Google maps said was the wrong house.
I did a little moving in at first but not much.
I was tired.
I was sure to take Sadie out as much as possible. I brought my bedding up. Now I'm here.
P.S. I am finishing this post several days after I started it. I just wanted to break my update posts into smaller chunks. So a post will follow this one shortly on my orientation experience and thoughts on my first several days here.
1 comment:
I'm glad you're alive. I'm glad you're adjusting to Javier. I'm glad you loved your first car, despite the quirks.
I was okay with Rosebud, but she was not my favorite... mostly because she didn't have cruise control (I got my first two speeding tickets while driving her), she had a tendency to shake and rattle (but not roll, luckily) if I drove between 70-79 mph (oddly enough, if I hit 80, she was fine again), and she had a tendency to suck up battery juice so quickly that she liked to "die" at the drop of a hat (which is why I finally invested in some good jumper cables...).
I have to say, I like Frankie much better, even if he yells at you for not buckling up your seat belt. Good luck with your return to New England. I'm jealous. I would love to be there with you. I guess we'll see what the next school year brings.
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