My First Time Short (Long) Driving

It’s been close to a month since I have got my first car and it’s a black BMW 335i Sedan. Ever since I started riding bike I always get fascinated with riding. When I came here to USA, one thing I really wanted to do for myself was "now that I am here, I want to drive through west coast of USA, from San Diego to Seattle or some long stretch through west coast." I liked watching a sinking sun in the middle of sea, standing besides a beach more than rising sun peeking out of greenly hills. Probably I liked it that way for the fact that I am from a place which is close to west coast of India.

After not doing much of driving during last 3 weekends, I had decided to drive to San Antonio irrespective of whether I get a company or not. But my friend said that he will join me. And then we planned for this, [yeah, there was nothing much to plan, other than grabbing extra pair of cloths, filling up tank, keeping some water bottles], we left my place early in the morning, at 6:15 AM on Saturday.

As I drove in highways couple of times before this, I was not nervous while driving through the highway. To make sure that I don’t have to be very attentive to both sides, I was always on the left most lane and I maintained at steady 80 mph speed so that I won’t be blocking way for any cars coming behind me. After 3 hours of non-stop driving, it was time for a break as my friend was desperate for a cup of coffee. I switched my car to right most lane and we were checking out for a food exit for a long time and finally found one. I dint realize that I was still ripping off at 80s, even after coming to right most lane. I knew that I will have to reduce speed to 40 mph while taking exit and I was having a feeling that I am moving with some speed closer to that range. I took the exit lane, and with in next 200 feet I had to take a sharp right turn, I stared applying break now, but it was too late to do two things at once - turning right and applying the break.

"Its not stopping dude!" was all that I could yell. I tried everything not to take off my foot from the break. Car came to a halt, right in front of the curb, fraction of a second away from hitting the curb and I was still anticipating a huge "THUDDD..." sound and my car failed me with that, but the great thing it did was it saved it and saved my confidence. And then followed this discussion about what has happened, which lasted for next fifteen minutes from when I was grasping my breath before hitting accelerator again to me driving my car to near by Wal-Mart shop. I was still looking for a valid explanation about why this happened and all I could come up with was, "break was not working fine". And it was not at all acceptable theory as all of a sudden why on the earth a car like BMW won’t stop even after applying break! My friend didn’t miss this opportunity to give me a proper lecture on how to drive while taking exit, and at turns. "You still have to work on your turnings dude" was the final conclusion from him. And only thing that I could do was, accept that by saying, "Yeah, I know, miles to go"

After that much needed break, we hit back to I-35, which runs towards San Antonio, and this time everything was proper, no more hiccups as I just had to keep on driving through one line, I dint had to change the lane as there were not many who wanted to over take me, and those who were crazy enough to drive beyond 90, were shifting other lane and then taking back this lane. We crossed Austin and were in the middle of some intersection where in many roads were joining in and leaving out and I had to take left lane once and right lane once to get in to other high-ways which was inter-woven. Again, I was in steady speed of 80 mph.

I could not even watch it when I was approaching a car which was either moving very slow or not moving at all. I dint observe whether the break light in that car was on or off (It’s my friend who told me it was on when I asked him about it later). It was very simple observation and decision to make when the vehicle ahead of you is getting closer while you drive. And I applied break too late, that too when my friend shouted "Dude, you are going to hit that car now". And by this time I knew how to apply break to reduce the speed significantly. And my car stopped before it’s too close to kiss the back of other car!

Now, for next ten minutes, I had to listen to everything that my friend says, just like a kid standing in front of the teacher in school, after getting caught doing some stupid things. To make the conversion interesting, I was coming up with my own doubts, "How would I know the car ahead of me is slowing down?, what if the break light is not working?, what if the car behind me is so close that if I apply break that car will hit me for sure?" I have this problem, whenever I see a girl and while every other guy is busy in other details, I will be thinking of "wow, she has a beautiful nose like Nicole Kidman, which is lifted a bit upwards, her eyes are so clean and white, look at her hair, its just too good". My details and observations are very specific! And it was time for me to realize how specific I am when it comes to observing. I miss the important details by focusing on only things which I am interested in.

And just before we could hit San Antonio city, we were still on the highway, but I was in right lane as I had to take the road which was going inside the city. The road was a bit inclined towards up and immediately after that it was a downward slope road. I was horrified to see a huge sofa in the middle of the lane in which I was driving and the color of the sofa was so that in that hot summer I could see the sofa only from within 200 feet and not before that! I really don’t know what made me to take a sharp right and take the free lane which was not meant to be a drive-way. And immediately after that I joined back to that lane. I had too less time to think and I was wondering from where I could avoid this. My friend was shell shocked and he was more shocked to know that I dint hit the sofa. With my previous two encounters, he was damn sure that, finally I made it this time. I disappointed him for once ;)


- Friday June 12th 2009