Drive Time

Although we have long since been sucked into the vortex of Minivan Nation, it was not always thus. We were actually looking for a new car at the time we learned we'd be adopting our son; we ended up carrying through our original plan and buying a Corolla. It was a wonderfully dependable, durable, and economical car; but at that time, at least, the Corolla was approximately the size of a twin bed.

That was fairly adequate with one small child... but with 2 of them, less small every day, it felt like it was approaching "couch" size. Then add in a (generous) pinch of sibling conflict, and it becomes a rolling phone booth.

So time once again to do the car-searching thing -- keeping in mind that one of the reasons I like Toyotas is because I have to go car-shopping that much less often. Here's the thing I really don't understand: suppose I walk into the grocery store tomorrow and steak is $3.99 a pound. So I pick out a 2-pound steak... what do you think would happen if I took it to the checkout and said, "Tell you what, I'll give you $7 for it"? Suppose further that the store had paid $5 for the steak, so they were secretly willing to sell it for $6. So even if I save a buck, I'm really spending a dollar too much. Doesn't that kind of sum up the car-buying experience?

It didn't take us too long to narrow down our search to a few, and before long (at least for me; note that another key reason I don't like car-shopping is that at the end a decision is required, and a decision costing thousands of dollars at that) we had settled on... another Toyota. Surprise!

This time we opted for a Camry, "Motor Trend's (perennial) Car of the Year". It's dependable and smooth -- and it's also bigger than my first apartment. My goal was to get the kids far enough away that I couldn't quite hear them, or at least to get them far enough away from each other that they could inflict only superficial wounds.

Last week I got to take it on the first real Road Trip; you wouldn't want me to take the van to Boston, would you? It was a little like driving my living room down the Mass Pike (as opposed to the van, which is more like being a package in one of those US Mail semis).

I even got to do one thing I can never do in my own living room: listen to the radio broadcast of the Mets game. In my childhood, before there was such a thing as cable TV, the only way to keep up with the Mets on a daily basis was radio... even later, as I went out on my own, and the Mets emerged from the funk of the late 70s-early 80s, I spent many hours in the aforementioned tiny apartment pacing and listening to the ballgame.

Local (upstate) radio stations don't carry the Mets any more, but there's something about a car radio that allows you to bring in those faraway AM stations... so I got to enjoy the flashback of listening to the game.

Unfortunately, it seemed that would be the only enjoyable part. The Mets, already fully engaged in blowing their seemingly insurmountable division lead, were in the midst of receiving a thrashing from the more-or-less hapless Washington Nationals -- and neither for the first or last time, at that. As I approached Boston, the score was 10-3 Washington, heading to the bottom of the 9th.

Then a single, a strikeout, a walk... and like a bolt from the blue, a 3-run homer. Suddenly it's 10-6, and after another hit, a pitching change. Then another hit, and a walk, and a double, and guess what -- it's 10-9.

All this time, of course, I'm still heading west -- and after the Nats change pitchers yet again, and the winning run comes to the plate, I reach my exit. Now, the Copley Plaza exit is essentially a tunnel/underpass that extends for some distance, and maybe you remember what going into a tunnel does to AM reception!

I hustled through the tunnel with my heart in my throat, but by the time I was out the other side, the second out had already occurred. By the time I turned the wrong direction off the exit, the game was over. As it turned out, it was a microcosm of the rest of the week: in suspense till the very last second before ending in crushing disappointment.

On the other hand, the ride was very comfortable (OK, physically) and I did get great gas mileage.....