A Great Christmas In A Not So Great Truck
Where to begin? Kara and I had planned a trip to Woodstock New York over the Christmas weekend (Yes, we are still here today). We left on Thursday with a plan to take a cab into Jersey to pick up a rental car. I realize that there are closer places, but the cheapest one we could find was at a location called “Rent-A-Wreck”. And boy let me tell ya, the name fits them better than anything I can think of.
We had to get there by 3om to pick up the car or the place would close, leaving us stranded in Jersey. So we had originally planned to leave our apartment in the late morning or early afternoon. However, we had a wake up call at 8:30 in the morning. It was out landlady and the plumbers. They had come to fix the Radiators. so our departure time is now delayed. But it sure didn’t end there. We finally called for a car around 1:30 and they sent us a driver who did not know how to get to Jersey, but to make things worse, didn’t know how to use his GPS. The quickest way for us to get to where we were going would have been to drive over the Verrazano Bridge into Jersey and that would have dumped us right at the location we were heading to, but no, our driver didn’t even look for directions until we got into Manhattan. Manhattan on Christmas Eve, that’s all I’m saying. Needless to say we didn’t get to the rental place until 3:40. So when we ge there the man renting us the car(actually a gas station/service station attendant) began to chew me out about being late and told me he wouldn’t rent us the car, and after much pleading he finally decided to rent us the vehicle.
Now the Vehicle. The place is called Rent-A-Wreck for a reason. The truck we got is a rather large silver Dodge Truck. The Truck looks like it was on its way to the junk yard when someone stopped and said, “NO, I can use that as a rental.” And they did. The truck has very poor alignment forcing me to hang on for dear life to stay in my lane, however there was the occasional unintended lane change. Almost every other time I push the Gas to take off, the truck forgets that it’s supposed to do anything so it jumps a bit, The interior smells like an old 80 yellow cab, the back sliding window is taped together and flaps open every time the driver door closes, the entire body is covered in scratches, dents and chipped paint, and the tail gate is non operational. But, it did get us to Woodstock, and it only broke down once in the parking lot of the wine store, so all in all it wasn’t that bad. But the only good part about the truck was the two stickers on the back window. on the right is a Marines sticker, and on the left is a Harley Davidson sticker. So when I walked out and saw this clunker that was supposed to get us upstate alive I was supper worried, but then I saw the stickers, and I said ok. SO we got in and and began our adventure. Actually we had to go straight to the Gas station, because next to the illuminated ”Check Engine Light,” was the “Gas Light.”
All in All the rental got us to Woodstock alive, and thanks to it we have been able to enjoy an amazing time outside of the city with just me and my Girlfriend. But the lesson is, Next time pay a little more and get a car from the Airport.
