"adventure" in progress...
I'm in New York right now; the original plan had been for me to drive up saturday, see my friend Anastasia from last summer, get some good food, relax a bit, and head back sunday evening. Well, I'm still here... and my car is still in a garage in North Arlington, New Jersey, which is where I had it towed after the transmission blew. Needless to say, I'm prepared to classify the weekend as an adventure before it's even over, which is like putting someone on a stamp while they're still alive, but I'm pretty sure "stranded in the City indefinitely with one change of clothes" qualifies pretty well, no matter what happens next.
Basically, I had noticed the couple times I stopped for gas/coffee/toilet in PA and NJ that the car was backing up kinda slowly, like underpowered. I made a wrong turn, getting of I-280 just before the junction at the Lincoln Tunnel (into Manhattan), and pulled into an industrial park's driveway to make a U-turn. I swung around, pulled up to the street to turn back into traffic, and then thought the better of trying to beat the oncoming cars. I put the Subie in reverse, put my foot on the gas, dropped the clutch, and... nothing happened. I started freaking out a little, but in my head i was thinking, "Reverse must be out, yeah that's it; I can get to Queens without reverse, I won't need to parallel park..." So I put it into first to try to make it the rest of the way, put my foot on the gas, drop the clutch, and... it still doesn't move. At this opint, I'm like hyperventilating; I try turning the car off, turning it on, putting into gear, taking it out, putting it back in, everything. The engine sounds fine, it just won't make the machine move with it. I get out of the car, start pacing, pull out my AAA card, glare angrily at the heavens... I mean, I don't even know where I am at this point, and the only person around is the security guard for the parking lot who doesn't speak english well. Enlisting the help a few minutes later of another driver who made the same wrong turn I just did, we push the car back into the parking lot, and I settle in to wait; three hours later (in 90-something new york heat, no less), I finally get towed. So now I'm in Queens with Anastasia, crashing on her couch til I hear back from the garage. In the meantime, we've been eating well, seeing good movies, wandering all over the city--compared to the week I spent in Delta, Colorado on the family vacation back in 1995 when our van's fuel pump went out, this has been a blast of a stranding.
At this point, it's out of my hands. I'm getting a call from John, of City Garage, tomorrow morning, when we find out 1. what's wrong with the car, 2. what we can do about it, and 3. when I'll probably be going back to State College (whether driving or taking a bus). In the meantime, I'm just gonna plan for a busy day--buying a change of clothes, nice lunch, getting a book to read in the park, a museum, and if I stick around, maybe a picnic dinner and the bryant park movie. May as well enjoy myself while I'm planning ahead one day at a time...
Basically, I had noticed the couple times I stopped for gas/coffee/toilet in PA and NJ that the car was backing up kinda slowly, like underpowered. I made a wrong turn, getting of I-280 just before the junction at the Lincoln Tunnel (into Manhattan), and pulled into an industrial park's driveway to make a U-turn. I swung around, pulled up to the street to turn back into traffic, and then thought the better of trying to beat the oncoming cars. I put the Subie in reverse, put my foot on the gas, dropped the clutch, and... nothing happened. I started freaking out a little, but in my head i was thinking, "Reverse must be out, yeah that's it; I can get to Queens without reverse, I won't need to parallel park..." So I put it into first to try to make it the rest of the way, put my foot on the gas, drop the clutch, and... it still doesn't move. At this opint, I'm like hyperventilating; I try turning the car off, turning it on, putting into gear, taking it out, putting it back in, everything. The engine sounds fine, it just won't make the machine move with it. I get out of the car, start pacing, pull out my AAA card, glare angrily at the heavens... I mean, I don't even know where I am at this point, and the only person around is the security guard for the parking lot who doesn't speak english well. Enlisting the help a few minutes later of another driver who made the same wrong turn I just did, we push the car back into the parking lot, and I settle in to wait; three hours later (in 90-something new york heat, no less), I finally get towed. So now I'm in Queens with Anastasia, crashing on her couch til I hear back from the garage. In the meantime, we've been eating well, seeing good movies, wandering all over the city--compared to the week I spent in Delta, Colorado on the family vacation back in 1995 when our van's fuel pump went out, this has been a blast of a stranding.
At this point, it's out of my hands. I'm getting a call from John, of City Garage, tomorrow morning, when we find out 1. what's wrong with the car, 2. what we can do about it, and 3. when I'll probably be going back to State College (whether driving or taking a bus). In the meantime, I'm just gonna plan for a busy day--buying a change of clothes, nice lunch, getting a book to read in the park, a museum, and if I stick around, maybe a picnic dinner and the bryant park movie. May as well enjoy myself while I'm planning ahead one day at a time...
posted by sam at
12:29 PM
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