{"id":34484,"date":"2011-09-07T05:23:04","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T11:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wend.ca\/?p=34484"},"modified":"2015-09-12T21:49:31","modified_gmt":"2015-09-13T03:49:31","slug":"georgia-driving-adventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/?p=34484","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Driving Adventures"},"content":{"rendered":"

“It’s 1:30am. Your rental was for 9am yesterday.” <\/p>\n

“I know. You wouldn’t believe the travel day I’ve had.”<\/p>\n

“We already gave away your car. But, let me see what’s left in the lot.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This was at the Budget Car rental booth in Atlanta. The woman I was talking to said the last sentence with a half smile. “Have fun,” is all she said when she handed over the keys and beckoned the next customer. <\/p>\n

As I walked out to the lot I wondered about her last words but was too tired to really consider what they meant, until I approached my vehicle. <\/p>\n

She gave me a GT Mustang… a red one at that. <\/p>\n

After the immediate evil laugh, I kept thinking back to the Theory of Colour<\/em> course I took where the instructor kept saying, “people with red cars get more speeding tickets.” This is when my inner voice started to pipe in every few moments:<\/p>\n

(Red and fast. Cheers to that!)<\/em><\/p>\n

On inspection I noticed the vehicle didn’t have rental car identifiers smattered all over the bumper. <\/p>\n

(Untagged, beautiful, and mine for the week.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Many minutes later it was one of those once in a life surreal moments. Driving into the city as lightning flashed behind the buildings and rain misted; jazz played on the radio. <\/p>\n

(It’s a shame this car’s an automatic. A car like this needs a stick shift.)<\/em><\/p>\n

The roads were empty and as I got further into the core I began to wonder about where I was going. I pulled up to a set of lights and hookers leaned over to look in the window to see who was inside. <\/p>\n

(Definitely not a good part of town. And, I’m driving a blasted Mustang. Stupid car. Why couldn’t I get a silver Japanese four door with “Budget” plastered all over the bumper.)<\/em><\/p>\n

The light turned green and I disappear quickly, much to the dismay of the women left behind.<\/p>\n

Finding the hotel was difficult. It was tucked away on an obscure little street. I had to drive around the block a couple of times before finding the quick right that led to my hotel.<\/p>\n

(Great. Now I look like I’m cruising. Look nonchalant.)<\/em><\/p>\n

As I pull up, I see a couple of addicts passed out on the street. A suspicious looking man shouts out, “nice car, man.” <\/p>\n

(Yep. I’m doing secure valet parking tonight.)<\/em><\/p>\n

The valet gives me a half smile when I hand over the keys. <\/p>\n

“You here for the week?” His smile gets bigger as I nod yes.<\/p>\n

(Check-in. Rebook elsewhere. Check-out in the morning. Easy peasy. Definitely won’t be here tomorrow night, little man who is now caressing the steering wheel.)<\/em><\/p>\n

The hotel was quite nice and seemed oddly out of place in this part of town. The woman working the desk looks strangely posh.<\/p>\n

“Valet parking for your car?” She asks.<\/p>\n

I nod.<\/p>\n

“Smart choice. Also, I wouldn’t walk anywhere.”<\/p>\n

“And, you’re staying for the week?”<\/p>\n

“No. I plan to check out tomorrow.”<\/p>\n

“The Courtyard in ****** is beautiful.” <\/p>\n

(Wow. She said that without pause. Must be a common thing for people to switch hotels upon arrival.)<\/em><\/p>\n

“Beef jerky or points.”<\/p>\n

“Does anyone actually ever take the beef jerky?”<\/p>\n

She laughs.<\/p>\n

“Points it is.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My room was quite beautiful. Twas a shame to leave. However, I’m not the kind of person who can sit in a hotel room because I’m afraid to go anywhere. And, a red Mustang is meant to be driven and not stuck in downtown traffic or locked up in secure parking. <\/p>\n

Thus begins the Georgia evening driving adventures. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n“It’s 1:30am. Your rental was for 9am yesterday.” “I know. You wouldn’t…\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “Georgia Driving Adventures”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[412,287,34],"tags":[439,333],"class_list":["post-34484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atlanta","category-georgia","category-us","tag-the-horse-mustang","tag-trains","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34484"}],"version-history":[{"count":92,"href":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53340,"href":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34484\/revisions\/53340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}