Musings at Altitude

When I arrived in New Orleans today, I quickly went to the rental car shuttle, got to the lot, and heard those dreaded words come out of the agent’s mouth – “Sir, will a full size sedan be ok?” 

At the risk of scaring her if I screamed, “NO!!!!!”, I quietly said instead, “Do you have anything smaller?” 

In the course of just a few seconds, I pictured myself looking like an old man driving that full size sedan down the streets of Baton Rouge.  And then even worse, if it had been a Lincoln or Cadillac, I pictured myself being considered a highly sleazy, underworld operator as I drove around doing my business.

After a minute or so of searching, the agent came back with, “Sir, will you take a compact car?”

“Absolutely”, I said!

She looked pleasantly surprised, and judging by the number of empty spaces on the lot, I bet she really needed that full size.

She finished printing out the rental agreement, told me “Space 301”, and pointed me to the other side of the lot.

I quickly grabbed my things and headed over.  I found the car, put my bags in the trunk, and jumped into the Mazda 6, smiling at feeling really good in that small and yet somewhat very comfortable vehicle.

As I was pulling out of the parking space, I realized that I hadn’t checked to see if they were charging me for insurance.  They shouldn’t have, but I had a nagging feeling that they may have put on those additional charges during the car swap.  So I put the car in park and pulled out the rental agreement.  The insurance was correct – they did not bill me for any.  But the mileage was wrong.  The rental agreement said 34,000 miles out, but the odometer said 26,000.  That caused me to look at the front of the agreement, and it said I was supposed to have a Chevy Cobalt and not a Mazda 6.

Dad gummit!  I was in the wrong car!  Thankfully, I figured it out before getting to the exit gate!

I quickly figured out where the right car was, got my bags transferred and settled inside.  The small, luxurious Mazda 6 turned out instead to be the base model Chevy Cobalt.  And by base model, I mean BASE MODEL!  Since it was 75 degrees out and I still had my Colorado winter clothing on, I reached down for the window button and saw no buttons at all!  I smiled as I rolled down the window.  Then I looked for the side view mirror adjustments, and each mirror had a knob out of the side for manual moving of the mirrors.  I smiled at that too as I reached across the car to move the mirrors into the right locations.  And I looked for a power lock button to lock the doors.  Sure enough, I had to go around the car and individually lock each of the doors!

I was completely laughing as I drove down the road, talking to my good friend Clyde on the phone, using my knee to steer while trying to manually roll up the window so I could hear!  I called Clyde because he’s the only other person I know that owns a vehicle with no power windows, no power locks, no power anything.  Clyde has a BASE MODEL pickup truck.

At least he has a truck.  I was driving a BASE MODEL sub-compact!

I truly am spoiled!

DISCLAIMER:  The comments above are not meant to annoy or impugn anyone that drives a vehicle classified as “nothing powered”.  In fact, I have great respect for those in “nothing powered” vehicles who have to yell across the car or truck and say “can you lock the door for me?”  And for my good friend Clyde – I bet my Chevy Cobalt can take your Red Pickup Truck!