B's Adventure Driving A Whale. Oops, I Mean A Station Wagon!

Driving. I love it but it took me much longer than T to realize how much freedom and adventure it can provide to someone. In my case, it's provided more adventure...Some wanted and some not wished on anyone. I didn't get my drivers license until I was 18. I figured since my boyfriend and my best friend drove me where I needed to go, and I didn't have a car, why bother? Besides, you might recall there were a few times that my boyfriend would allow me to drive his truck regardless...Ahhh, young love.




At age 15, I had a driving experience at our grandparents like T did. After much whining and pleading, I had convinced our Grandma to let me and my friend Angie take a cruise up and down their road in her Ford station wagon. Her wagon was root beer brown and huge like a whale! Why did she need such a whale of a car anyway? She and Grandpa always had these huge cars, reference T's driving blog and the Chevy Impala. Oh well, it was what it was and I was so excited to drive the beast one way or another! Besides no one was going to see us so we could pretend to be as cool as we wanted right?



Picture the fact that I had very little driving experience up until this point in my life. I missed out on the "making wood" trips that T had gone on...Who knows what made me think I was ready for such a feat? But I was cocky, and brave, and I could do it! Angie and I jumped in the front seat, thank goodness looking back Grandma's car was an automatic! We made sure to crank up the radio for our "road trip". We put on our seatbelts. I remember we were nervous, but what a pair of adventurers. Neither of us had driven much up until this point, so it was definitely a case of the blind leading the blind. But we were determined to figure it out, we didn't want to ask Grandma for fear that she wouldn't let us go. Between the two of us we were able to get the car into drive and our trip up and down the road was seamless. We pictured ourselves like we were "Thelma & Louise" on some grand adventure.



This is where the real clincher happens. We got back to our grandparents and it was time to park. You would think it was the actual driving that would have freaked me out, but me, nope it was parking. I had been so nervous the whole 5 minute adventure that my palms were sweaty, even though I had loved the actual driving. I was SO ready to get out of the car and take a breather, whew! We had pulled this one off without a hitch. Or had we? I put the car into reverse, to back it into it's parking "spot". From this point on some details are slightly fuzzy. From what I recall I was slightly distracted singing whatever was on the radio and talking to Angie. Well, I started to back up and backed in all crooked so I had to drive forward again to straighten out. This whole time I know for a fact Grandma was inside watching her favorite soap, "All My Children" because she always had to catch it while it was on since this was pre-Tivo. (reference T's driving blog here)



So we pull ahead and I shift the car into reverse. Keep in mind I'm flustered and have little driving experience. I'm setting the scene for you so you might feel the slightest bit sorry for me and my lame driving skills in this next part. Bwahahaha! Anyway I put the whale, I mean car, into reverse and don't ask me why but I slammed my foot into the gas and sped into reverse! Right until I smashed into the porch of my grandparents house! What the heck just happened!? It was SO loud that Grandma had peeled herself away from "All My Children" to come out of the house with this horrified look on her face. Angie and I were stunned. I think I recall Angie saying, "Oh My God" and laughing out of nervousness but I immediately was worried what was going to happen to me for doing this.



If you could only picture our Grandparents house and their porch, you might understand this wasn't as big of a deal as you might have thought. Our Grandparents lived very frugally their whole life, like many of us should do, and they had constructed their porch out of lattice and out of the corrugated plastic sheets for the roof. It was painted to match the house and they had cute little redwood burl flower pots all over the porch for decor. So I am not down playing the seriousness but you will see as you read on, it could've potentially been MUCH worse...

Angie and I got out of the car with our heads hung low, waiting for the reaming of our lifetime. Grandma threw out a few choice words, and something like "Holy shit Bridgette, just wait until your Grandpa gets home! I thought it was an earthquake!!" By this time I had lifted my head up to assess the true damage. You could still hear the radio playing in the car because I hadn't known enough to turn the key all of the way off before exiting the car. I looked around the porch. My joy ride into their porch didn't look ALL that bad. Remember, I try to be an optimist when at all possible. There was dirt all over the patio and the planters were overturned. There were a few pieces of the lattice chipped towards the bottom, and the whole wall of lattice itself was pushed in towards the patio. I said, "Don't worry Grandma we will fix this in no time". I've never jumped into action so quick trying to clean up this mess before the big cheese, Grandpa arrived. I loved him so much and certainly didn't want to disappoint him!



We swept up the dirt, set up the planters again, and pulled the wall of lattice back out into position. By the time we were done you could hardly tell what had happened just shortly before. There were a few planters that had been relocated into strategic positions to cover up the chipped lattice but other than that Angie and I were pleased with our handy work. Grandpa came home just as we were finishing up. I made sure to tell him my story before he went into the house to talk to Grandma.



What I can say is that I didn't get into trouble and my Grandpa just gave me that head shake like he was disappointed in me. That was probably worse than if I had to wash his truck like T did in her blog. But I had learned my lesson. I was NOT ready to drive unsupervised, at least for another year or so...Hmmm.. Maybe that's why I didn't get my actual drivers license until I was 18? I never really put two and two together. Naaahhh.



I wish I could say this experience was the first and last time I have gotten into a car accident. It was the first, but not the last sadly. I won't even go into the amount of times I have thought to myself God must be watching over me. The driving at our Grandparents was just a small window into my driving future I suppose...But it makes for an interesting story, don't you think?

Embrace Your Sparkle,

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