Driving in LA on a Saturday morning on Interstate Five with her six lanes and blind cops and everyone driving eighty-five, and always the three or four cars doing the weave through the openings and gaps left open by the considerate masses – driving safely but aggressively. Hovering around ninety two… ninety-seven miles per hour, looking for openings, anticipating moves, calculating your opponents / compatriots advantages / disadvantages, setting up gaps and closers, laying the turbo on the pavement – has got to be one of the highlites of the year.
I landed late in Reno and the husky Budget rent-a-car lady totally played me. Getting me to agree to upgrading my vehicle for, “Only ten dollars a day. It just snowed in Tahoe, you’ll need all-wheel drive. Only ten dollars…” Then, talking me into getting a total-coverage plan, “It covers second parties, anything that happens, you’re totally covered…”
My mind flashing back to my first rental car situation nearly sixteen years ago. The blinkers and lights going off and on. Steam billowing from the hood, the front end nearly invisible, like it had just eaten itself. The front end totally gone inside the cavity of the floor boards…
Fine. Yes. One hundred and fifty dollars for insurance for four days. It’s worth it. Give me the good insurance plan. And thank God for I-Five, Saturday mornings, GMC, six lanes, Ocean views, Ocean air, and the long haired, sunglass covered, linear, sun-bleached faces with their hands at ten and two- and to those of you with a heavy foot and a total regard for human life – but none what so ever for speed limit signs: thank you.
