« Frozen Treat Chart | Main | You never save as much time as you think »
August 21, 2006
On the road to OSU
It was 1982.
A group of us decided to make the trip from Miami University to The Ohio State University to visit some friends. We thought we'd make the trip in The Bruise, my black and blue VW, which was an odd choice as not too long before it had suffered from a fire in the engine compartment.
(You can read a lot more about The Bruise here. It's worth the time.)
The group was comprised of Tom, Dick, Cindy and me.
We left early in the afternoon; the four of us and about a dozen beers. Tom decided he'd drive as I'd already had a few early-afternoon Miller Lites.
We hit the road with Jenny (867-5309) blasting.
Traffic was light on I-70 and we were making pretty good time, until ... the car started sputtering, which always signaled an inevitable stop.
We pulled to the side of the road, I got out and threw open the hood at the rear of the car. I probably took a look around the engine compartment -- it was SOP -- and then I got in the driver's seat to try to get the thing running.
As I sat there a State Highway Patrolman appeared outside the door. This is always a good sign
"You were driving pretty erratically back there. Is something wrong?" he asked.
"It wasn't me driving sir," I replied.
"It was you. I saw you," he stated, still friendly.
Well. It wasn't me driving -- but I wasn't the one wearing the badge. And, as to the erratic driving, I don't know what that was about. I'm pretty sure we were singing at the top of our lungs and just carrying on.
"Officer, I wasn't driving," I said, "I've had a little too much beer."
"I was driving sir," Tom piped up.
The officer asked why we'd stopped and I explained about the engine problems the The Bruise had.
The officer stepped to the front of The Bruise. "Where's the front plate?" he asked.
"At home in a closet," I said. And it was, I'd seen it just the weekend before.
"There's a reason they give you two plates," he continued.
"Yes sir. I know."
"I'm going to do a safety check."
This was going to be good.
Really. If you haven't, you need to read up on The Bruise before you continue to the next installment. You need to have a feel for what a sweet ride this car was to fully appreciate the stupidity of taking it outside of its home zip code.
Posted by delmer at August 21, 2006 7:09 AM
Comments
I've read about you sweet, blue VW Beetle. Good stuff...
I think having such a car and going on road trips should be a collegete mandatory sort of deal. We had one too. My buddy Kevin had The Zephyr. All boxy, semi-reliable at best, but had a great sound system...we took it everywhere.
Until some drunk idiot hit The Zephyr, and The Zephyr nearly took out a utility pole. Had Kevin been driving a Ford Focus, he'd probably be dead. But the huge, heavy Zephyr absorbed the hit well.
After the accident, he replaced it with a giant 1978 Impala...Which I called the Im-pa-la (accent on the last syllable). This monster was a real Planet Destroyer...boxier and bigger than The Zephyr.
Posted by: The Phoenix at August 21, 2006 4:43 PM
A roomie of mine had a Buick Electra 225. It was massive and had shocks so bad that the car continually rocked up and down.
A buddy had a big Ford truck with 'flot-a-matic' steering. That is, you could turn the steering wheel a good bit either way before the wheels actually moved. Looking back, it was probably not the safest thing to drive.
A girl I knew had an AMC Pacer. She called it the Space Shuttle.
Posted by: delmer at August 22, 2006 8:01 AM