My Miami Adventure
Today was a pretty eventful day even though the plans my mom and I had made were not at all close to what actually happened. We were planning on doing a little traveling before I left, but those plans had to be postponed for a little bit.
Our plan was to head to South Beach in Miami. We were going to eat lunch near the beach and then we would walk along the beach to see all the neat art deco hotels that are still in South Beach. Then we were going to head down to Key West. Sounds like a fun plan, huh? We didn’t even make it further than North Miami Beach. My mom’s old car decided to overheat on the freeway. With smoke coming out of the hood of the car we got off the freeway and found a drug store parking lot. Right nearby we were able to find a gas station with engine coolant and a super market with water. After an hour of sitting around and fixing the car we were able to get I started. I thought that was enough, but the car started overheating again. I was able to pull into another parking. I looked under the car and it looked like the radiator was leaking. So, I filled up the radiator and decided that we should have it towed back home.
We went to the nearest mall to have the car towed. That was the closest place I could think of that had a pay phone. It felt weird to use since I am used to relying on cell phones now. The mall with the phone wasn’t so great either. Actually the mall was the worst run down mall I have ever seen. If Florida malls had an armpit, this one would be it. There were not even enough stores to fill the mall. I can only describe the stores as a collection of small clothing stores much like the ones you see in parking lots selling t-shirts and shoes.
We had to wait almost an hour and a half outside in the mall parking lot in our car. It was not so bad since we parked under the shade of a tree, but outside the tree’s shade it was almost 100 degrees! I was happy to see the tow truck pull up since it meant we would be sitting in air-conditioned cab.
The tow truck driver was really nice. He told my mom and I about the ins and outs of the tow truck driving business. It sounds like a pretty good type of company to own. He told us about all the different types of rates and how he gets more money when picking up people on the side road rather than AAA members. He also mentioned how it is better to have a towing company with a towing yard since you can get cars for free if people don’t claim them. Apparently it happens kind of often around here since drug dealers will flee the country if the cops or FBI are looking for them. The funniest part of the ride back home was when he started talking about the girl he was dating. The driver was 40 year old, who, despite being in the best shape, looked good for his age. Right now he is dating a girl who is 26 years old. You might wonder how he met such a young girl ….. well he used to date her mom! He was telling me that when I see him on Jerry Springer I can tell people he was the guy who towed my car. I thought that was so funny. He had me laughing for while, especially when he told me that the mom doesn’t know yet. I told him good luck. When he dropped us off at the repair shop I gave him a tip for being so entertaining and I told him he could go out and buy his girl a drink when they were at the club tonight. I almost like getting towed because you meet some really interesting people.
My mom and I are hoping that the car will be fixed tomorrow, so that we can start out trip late. If the car can’t be fixed until Monday then we will probably rent a car and take that down to Key West if it is not to expensive.
And that pretty much brings me up to now, 4:30 am Friday morning. Man I should at least try and adjust my body to this new schedule, but it is so easy to just stay up when there is almost no reason to wake up early. It is also easy to just zone out and watch the Olympics for hours and hours. Go United States! I am glad to see use doing well, but I am also glad to see some of other countries win medals. I was really impressed with Elgarouj winning the 1500m for his country as well as the Greek woman, Finia Helka, who won the 400m hurdles race. She beat the pants off of the defending champion of the Sydney games in 2000, which was cool to see.
I will leave with a PG question from my tow truck driver, “Your bed or mine?”.
Our plan was to head to South Beach in Miami. We were going to eat lunch near the beach and then we would walk along the beach to see all the neat art deco hotels that are still in South Beach. Then we were going to head down to Key West. Sounds like a fun plan, huh? We didn’t even make it further than North Miami Beach. My mom’s old car decided to overheat on the freeway. With smoke coming out of the hood of the car we got off the freeway and found a drug store parking lot. Right nearby we were able to find a gas station with engine coolant and a super market with water. After an hour of sitting around and fixing the car we were able to get I started. I thought that was enough, but the car started overheating again. I was able to pull into another parking. I looked under the car and it looked like the radiator was leaking. So, I filled up the radiator and decided that we should have it towed back home.
We went to the nearest mall to have the car towed. That was the closest place I could think of that had a pay phone. It felt weird to use since I am used to relying on cell phones now. The mall with the phone wasn’t so great either. Actually the mall was the worst run down mall I have ever seen. If Florida malls had an armpit, this one would be it. There were not even enough stores to fill the mall. I can only describe the stores as a collection of small clothing stores much like the ones you see in parking lots selling t-shirts and shoes.
We had to wait almost an hour and a half outside in the mall parking lot in our car. It was not so bad since we parked under the shade of a tree, but outside the tree’s shade it was almost 100 degrees! I was happy to see the tow truck pull up since it meant we would be sitting in air-conditioned cab.
The tow truck driver was really nice. He told my mom and I about the ins and outs of the tow truck driving business. It sounds like a pretty good type of company to own. He told us about all the different types of rates and how he gets more money when picking up people on the side road rather than AAA members. He also mentioned how it is better to have a towing company with a towing yard since you can get cars for free if people don’t claim them. Apparently it happens kind of often around here since drug dealers will flee the country if the cops or FBI are looking for them. The funniest part of the ride back home was when he started talking about the girl he was dating. The driver was 40 year old, who, despite being in the best shape, looked good for his age. Right now he is dating a girl who is 26 years old. You might wonder how he met such a young girl ….. well he used to date her mom! He was telling me that when I see him on Jerry Springer I can tell people he was the guy who towed my car. I thought that was so funny. He had me laughing for while, especially when he told me that the mom doesn’t know yet. I told him good luck. When he dropped us off at the repair shop I gave him a tip for being so entertaining and I told him he could go out and buy his girl a drink when they were at the club tonight. I almost like getting towed because you meet some really interesting people.
My mom and I are hoping that the car will be fixed tomorrow, so that we can start out trip late. If the car can’t be fixed until Monday then we will probably rent a car and take that down to Key West if it is not to expensive.
And that pretty much brings me up to now, 4:30 am Friday morning. Man I should at least try and adjust my body to this new schedule, but it is so easy to just stay up when there is almost no reason to wake up early. It is also easy to just zone out and watch the Olympics for hours and hours. Go United States! I am glad to see use doing well, but I am also glad to see some of other countries win medals. I was really impressed with Elgarouj winning the 1500m for his country as well as the Greek woman, Finia Helka, who won the 400m hurdles race. She beat the pants off of the defending champion of the Sydney games in 2000, which was cool to see.
I will leave with a PG question from my tow truck driver, “Your bed or mine?”.
posted by Jon Keto at
1:42 AM
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