Adventures in Driving

What a day! In my job it's not uncommon for me to drive anywhere from 600-1000 miles per week, depending on my schedule. The last three weeks have been very busy, and I probably drove 1,200 miles last week alone. There have also been some adventures along the way. Let's start with a couple of weeks ago.

I had to visit a camp that I handle which is near Ramona, CA and four miles up a dirt road. Just getting there is always an adventure, and as I was heading up the rutted, bumpy road I thought I heard a strange metalic sound. When I arrived at the camp I found that my left front hubcap was gone. The old country song "You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me, Loose Wheel" sprang to mind.

I remembered where I'd heard the noise and as I slowly drove back down the dirt road, I located the missing hubcap. I should have taken a close look at it, but when I got home I slapped it back on the tire.

The next day I was driving through Escondido in heavy traffic and thought I heard that noise again. I looked in my mirror but couldn't seen anything rolling away, and it wasn't until I arrived at my destination 45 minutes later I found that the hubcap had again escaped.

It wasn't until maybe 3 hours later that I was able to stop back by the area where I heard the noise, and sure enough, there was the hubcap sitting on the sidewalk waiting for me. I picked it up, looked a little closer and realized that some of the plastic supports were broken which explained why it kept running off. That one's trash.

Flash forward to today. I had an appointment in Escondido and after getting off the freeway, headed inland on Valley Parkway. Right past the point where the hubcap had left me the second time, traffic came to a dead stop. All cars were being shunted off onto a side street where the local cops had set up a driver's license checkpoint (I'd never seen one of those before). I had my license so it was a minor inconvenience for me, but I heard later on the radio that the cops impounded 24 cars belonging to folks who were driving without licenses.

In the late afternoon it was time to head home, and after getting on the northbound I-5 in Oceanside, a strange noise started in the left front which got rapidly louder and I could feel the tire going down. I made it off onto the gore point of the last exit before you leave town and sat there for awhile waiting for AAA to come (that's why I've been paying them for all these years). Best money I've ever spent.

I have another trip down south tomorrow, but let's hope there aren't any more adventures. I've had quite enough for awhile.

Jumping back to the driver's license check, just before that all happened I had heard on the radio that two bills were pending Gov. Arnold's signature. One would give driver's licenses to illegal aliens (One-Bill Gil Cedillo proposes that every year), and another bill would reduce impound fees for illegals driving without licenses. If you're a legal citizen but don't have a license, you would pay the full impound fees while illegals would be given a break. Go figure. That's California for you.

It's going to get to the point where it's going to be advantageous to renounce your citizenship so you can take advantage of all the deals offered to illegals (including in-state college tuition). Maybe I'll become a Guatamalan. That sounds interesting.