Aggravating Travel Notes - Skyline Drive

And as promised, here are the couple of things you should know about the Chevy Aveo:

1. It has ONE cup holder. Slap bang in the middle of the car, which means that its a good two feet behind you, which means that if you're in front, you have to execute a complex variation of Vakrasana to get to the damn coffee cup. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Oh, here's what Vakrasana looks like.



2. The lever to open the fuel flap is buried under the seat. Plus out lever had its markings worn out, so it took me a good three minutes to locate it when I needed to refuel, much to the amusement of the lady in the big pickup at pump #3.

3. The thing sounded like it was stuck in 2nd gear. So each time we'd top 60 mph, the whole thing would sound like we were trying to get it to 120 mph, and it would start vibrating (at a high frequency - almost like a buzzing).

4. The cruise control wouldn't work. Which is painful when you've escaped a high-beam tailgating maniac, and want to relax on a highway.

So Chevy Aveo, you get a 2 on 10. you deserve a 1, but you didn't break in the middle of the drive, so you get a point for that.


Two other aggravating notes from the drive: We met up with these really nice people on the way, and we ate some great food at their home (oh, the advantages of being Indian). Since they lived way out in the countryside, one of their other guests was determined to see us off till we hit the highway to get back home. This would have been nice gesture, except that the guy drove literally 6 feet behind me all the way. With. His. High. Beams. On. The faster I got, the more determined the guy was to keep up with me. I mean, I was totally blind and hurtling through these country roads at a suicidal 70 miles an hour, but there was no shaking the guy. There he was, with those big ol' high beams in my rear view mirror. I think we finally lost him when we hit the highway. I bet he thinks I drive like a jackass; I also bet he doesn't know how close he was to killing us.

Plus my friend Geetu tried killing us and people around us on at least 5 different occasions on the road. Now, Geetu is an awesome person, but the one thing she does do quite often is gesticulate like someone is repeatedly jabbing at her with a cattle prod. Which is only funny when you're not at the wheel of a car with surprisingly sensitive handling. I had to start playing Vivaldi in the car and close my eyes and visualize meadows in the spring to help me stop hyperventilating (really.) The big advantage of course was that there was no one within a good 300 feet of the crazy swerving Chevy Aveo on the highway - them drivers knew who not to mess with...