Tuesday, December 30, 2008

On The Road....Sort Of.


Josh and I began our trip today. Well, rather we began it at a greatly decelerated pace. We arrived in Martinsburg, WV this morning at 1:45AM, many hours after our originally estimated time. We learned a valuable lesson today, whatever can go wrong, will. I've heard this formerly referred to as Murphy's Law, but I am tempted to lobby for the renaming of it to Dale's Law. Heck I would settle for a hyphen. Murhpy-Dale’s Law. Either way. Our journey began this morning, around 9:00AM, when Josh's father informed me that the inspection sticker ran out on my car in two days. Wonderful. This put a slight delay on our departure, but whatever, it’s better than being pulled over for a sticker violation right? So we drive over to the inspection depot, "Sticker Station" to put my car through the paces and get our holy little sticker that says the Cranberry Crusader is street legal. Routine operation. However, after our nearly hour and a half wait, the mechanic informs me that the front ball joint-thingy on my wheel is loose. I had little idea what that meant, but he showed me that the wheel went "Wobble-wobble" when he wiggled it, so I took his word for it that a repair was needed. Another delay. I think you can see where this is going. So Josh's father graciously schedules us an appointment at the local Goodyear to have it repaired. Josh and I begin to make our way over to the garage, with me trailing him in my car so he can lead me there and give me a ride back to his home while he waits. We approach a rather busy intersection and I see Josh's Jeep just barely squeak through the green light as it turns yellow. I, in a desperate attempt to follow him quickly speed up to try and keep pace with him. Unfortunately for me, just as I was driving below the light, it turned to red, and even more unfortunate, the Biddeford police were on traffic-light duty today. I was convinced that I had made it through cleanly, however as I make my way from the intersection, I see the flashing blue lights in my mirror, and immediately pull to the side of the road, assuming they will pass by me. They did no such thing. The officer hits me with a tidy little $130 fine (Dale's Law). Despite the fiasco, we get my car delivered, and it has a rather timely repair, so we are able to pick it up around 1:30PM and finally begin our trip, albeit 4 hours later than we would have liked to have left. We then spent the next 12 hours driving, talking, eating at our friend Danielle and her wonderfully kind mothers house, sitting in traffic in NYC, and then finally, at long last, laying in our white linens at the Martinsburg, WV Motel 8 (An absolute class act by the way). Phew. Hopefully tomorrow’s entry will be less stress filled. Though that would make for a far less entertaining read. Hm, I'll see what I can do.

Here is the video Josh recorded on Monday. Enjoy.

7 comments:

The Masses said...

We the Masses here by attest to the above statement blog as true. Hey gentlemen, Carry on and Happy New Year Nashville style.

Miranda said...

130 bucks! BULLSHIT.

I'm glad your car is at its safest and most legal, but I'm pretty sure no one would pull you over for an expired inspection sticker out of state. A lot of states (especially out west) don't even require your car to be inspected! I kinda chuckled at you rushing to get the car inspected when it expired in two days-- I drove an uninspected car for six months in Mass. I'm glad you're not a rebel like me.

Hope you get to your next checkpoint with fewer incidents!

J.Winkfield said...

That ticket is so dumb. Sucks about the car troubles. back at school i didn't think anything was wrong with it.

Good luck on your trip, stay safe, and ill meet you in LA!

Anonymous said...

The course of true enlightenment never runs smooth. At least you missed the New Years Eve Day snow storm!

Matthew R. Dale said...

Ive had enough enlightenment for a while.

Anonymous said...

Classic!

Believe me when I say these things happen for a reason.

At least they were Biddeford cops and not a Texas sheriff out in the desert.

May the remainder of your journey be less eventful.

fluxist8070 said...

Ouch...Busted!
Good thing the mechanic caught the ball joint. That could have let to much more expensive problems.