Jen's Vehicle Adventures

Before I write this blog, I want to make sure that you know that I have never been seriously injured or killed in any vehicle accident! Neither have I ever seriously injured or killed anyone else (although, I think I have freaked out my sister once or twice). With my luck, my history in running into simple things like doorways, and some of the stories I am going to tell you, you might be surprised that I am still around to tell you about any of my vehicle adventures.

I was never the best driver, but I was one of the few gals from my high school basketball team that had a car accessible to drive friends around to various events (like trying to TP the coach’s house). A dad of one of my friends always made fun of my driving. I liked to brake hard in front of my friend’s home just to add to the teasing. I also wanted to get a t-shirt that said, “If you don’t like my driving, stay off the sidewalks!” At this time in my life, I never had an accident and never got pulled over by the police. I should have been pulled over once, though. I had a very full car of friends as we were driving back to school from a basketball banquet that occurred downtown. As I was on one street, I thought one of the gals in the backseat yelled, “Stop!” So I stopped. Suddenly. That’s when she pointed out the COP. Oops. I continued on my way as the cop just shook his head at me.

I did have a small incident during my school years. When my father was carpooling, I was able to drive his big, black Buick Skylark. This thing had no power anything! I remember turning and turning and turning the steering wheel to get around a corner – and then letting it go and watching it spin back to its normal position. I’m not the only one who remembers me doing that. I recently ran into the mother of one of my students. Apparently I gave this mother rides to school once in awhile when we were in high school (why can’t I remember this, I don’t know). She convinced me that she rode with me by mimicking how I let the steering wheel spin after a turn. :) This big bad car, though, had great acceleration – especially from stoplights. I raced more than one car from a stoplight in my day. Now, just to ease my parents’ minds if they read this – I raced until I got to the speed limit and then stayed there. BUT, I did get to that speed before the other cars. The thing about this Skylark is that it sometimes was hard to turn off. I would stop the car, pull the key from the ignition, and it would still be sputtering. My father called it “dieseling" and gave me a way to fix this when it happened: Put a foot firmly on the brake. Turn the key in the ignition while at the same time putting the car into drive. (I believe that was it.) So, one day I had arrived home with my sister in the front seat beside me. As we were in the garage, I turned off the car, but it was dieseling. This was my first chance to try the advice I had been given. There was only one problem – although my foot was firmly on the pedal, it was not on the brake pedal….it was on the accelerator! The next thing my sister and I know, the car has lurched forward towards the furnace and the family room! I quickly braked and then slowly backed up as my brother came ripping into the garage. I asked him later what it sounded like. He said, “It sounded like you were driving into the house!” As I backed away, I saw that I had knocked the furnace door loose. What was funny (well, is funny now) was that there were two old school desks between the car and the furnace. One of those desks got wedged into the grill of the car and came with the car as I backed away. It just looked funny attached to the car like that.

I have had a couple bigger car accidents as an adult. One completely totaled my car and was done right in front of a policeman. It was my fault as I t-boned a car. I could not see the other car, though, because of the hill I was on and the cars lined up along the side of the street blocking my view of oncoming traffic. My insurance agent talked with me a couple days later and asked what type of car I hit. “A purple one,” I told him. I don’t think that was exactly the answer he wanted. (Grin) Later in life I managed to do about $4000 of damage to our SUV as it hydroplaned and spun out of control on a freeway and smashed into a cement barrier. I had just left my sister’s hospital room after visiting with her and her new baby. This was also about four weeks after a major surgery for me. In the accident, I had a lot of pain at my incision and decided I better have it checked out. I ended up in the emergency room of the same hospital where my sister was resting. She looked much better in the hospital gown than I did, by the way.

When I got married, we did not have enough money to get me a car. For the first few weeks of my job, I biked. Thankfully it was during the summer and in sunny San Diego area. Finally one weekend, we bought a bright red, shiny motor scooter. That thing could get up to a full 35 (maybe 40) miles per hour and got 60 miles to the gallon (although, I think it only held one gallon). I loved it, though. It was an “automatic” motor scooter which meant that although it had a kickstart, all I really had to do was press a switch and it started. To move forward and accelerate, I turned the right handlebar towards myself. It worked fantastic and was so much easier than biking the few miles to work every day.

Of course, nothing is ever easy with me. One morning on my way to work, I was a bit worried about my boss and the fact that she had not liked the fact that I had been on vacation (to be in my friend’s wedding back in Indiana). My routine once I got to the daycare center where I worked was to turn off my scooter, lift it onto the sidewalk, and park it beside the building. This particular morning my mind was on my boss, and I forgot to turn the scooter off before picking it up. Let’s think about this. I grabbed both handlebars to pick up the front of the bike to put it over the curb. This meant I pulled back on the right handle bar which accelerates my bike. Before I knew it, my bike was trying to run away from my grip and headed straight towards one of my daycare kids and his mom! I veered to the right next to the chain link fence and pulled on my bike to bring it to a stop. Unfortunately, pulling harder on the right handlebar just made it accelerate faster. Now my bike was “bronco-ing” as the front wheel was high in the air! I finally let go and expected to watch my scooter take off down the lawn. Thankfully, though, once I was no longer holding onto the handlebar, the bike engine stopped and the bike fell down right where I let go of it. By the way, this meant another emergency room visit. As I was pulling on my bike, my right hand lost a lot of skin along the chain link fence. My boss sent me to the emergency room because she was sure I would need stitches.

Fast forward a couple years to a time when I was teaching. By now I didn’t use the scooter much because it was starting to have some problems. I either walked to school or my husband drove me there. One summer, though, I wanted to go to the mall while my husband worked. I dusted off the scooter and took off. Unfortunately, it did not work perfectly. Every time I got to a red light and had to idle, my scooter would turn off. Plus, it would not turn on by the switch anymore. I had to stand to the side of the scooter, kick start it and then hop on. I also needed to rotate the right handlebar towards myself to get it going or it would think that it was idling again and stop. Of course, to add to the fun, I seemed to hit every stoplight on this particular street. One of the first times I did this, the scooter almost took off without me on top of it. Whew! I told myself right then that if my bikes takes off without me, all I had to do was to Let Go of the handlebar. That is so much easier said than done! When the scooter starts taking off, the natural reaction is to pull it back towards yourself. Letting go just seemed wrong.

Well, it finally happened. I kick started the bike, tried to hop on, but this time it took off with me running beside it. I veered it towards the right and saw to my horror that we were aimed straight for the glass window of a florist shop! As I was running and pulling back on the bike, I was also yelling out loud to myself at the top of my lungs, “Let go! Let go!” What a sight I must have been!! This poor young mother with a stroller just watched me go from one side of the street to the other running beside my scooter and yelling (maybe she thought I was screaming at my imaginary friend). I finally did let go and the bike did not go careening into the florist shop. It just stopped and fell. Oh my! My heart raced for probably an hour after that! I think I walked the bike (with it turned off) for awhile and hoped the lady didn’t call the police on this crazy woman!

It wasn’t long after that that we did get another car. Unfortunately it was only for a year or less before I totaled that car. (Remember the hill and the purple car?) We didn’t have money to buy a new or used car for me, but with the little bit of insurance money we received, we were able to buy another motor scooter. This time it was a Honda Helix motor scooter – the Mother of all Motor Scooters! This 300-pound bike was the same size as a motorcycle with wheels smaller than bike tires. I could sit upright on it with my feet flat on a floorboard. It had a large windshield, a radio, and a seat for a second person to ride behind me. Oh yes, and it could to highway speeds! Are any of you worried yet?? This bike was located 45 minutes from our home with 3-5 highways in its path. I was the only one in our family with a motorcycle license. (I had to have one with the smaller scooter.) Maybe that is why I had to drive it home from the dealer. I was scared to death!! I woke up the morning that we were to go get it and truly thought that I might never see another morning. I made it, though. I even got that thing up to 70 mph – the same speed as the traffic around me. It wobbled a bit at that speed, but it worked.

I was taking my Masters classes at this time, and they were all in the evening. This meant that I had to do a lot of driving in the dark. Therefore in addition to my helmet and hand-protecting gloves, I got a geeky-looking orange and yellow reflective vest. (I was so lovely! Ha.) Of course, then I would ride my scooter in sandals. What?? I was so young and a bit loony back then. I had to laugh many times, though. In the dark, I looked like the motorcycle police that were on the highways. More than one car slowed way down when I got behind it. The only accident I had with this motor scooter happened as I was coming up to a red light. The road was slippery and the scooter quickly slid sideways dropping me spread-eagle on the 4-lane road. Thankfully I was more shaken up than hurt. Someone helped me get the scooter upright, and I was back on my way.

I miss my scooters (especially in the summer), but I do not miss the danger I at times put myself in. Knock on wood (quickly) – I have not had any major vehicle adventures lately. Although, in three years my son will be at that driving age. Aaaaahhhh! Hopefully he does not have my crazy gene!