Driving to D.C.

It’s been a long time since I last posted. Everything is still relatively on track. Mia is running alright. The truly hilarious thing about the whole car repair situation is that it will be repeated once more. About a month after I got Mia back in my care I received a letter from Kia stating that my subframe was being recalled due to road salt deterioration. Ya think? Anyway, Mia has been taken to the doctor once again and will get a completely new subframe. And, I have sent in paperwork to get reimbursed for the other repair. I’m on a waiting list on both accounts to get this resolved. I prefer to look at this as a win win situation. I get a new subframe and I get my money back – I hope.

Knowing that my car is probably not the best to drive on long distances Alejandro and I chose to drive his car to Washington DC for vacation the first week of July. We debated about which city would be the most entertaining to visit that week. We had three options. We would take our passports and check out Toronto, a ten hour drive, or drive to St. Louis, a four hour drive, and Washington D.C., a ten hour drive. The appeal of crossing the border into Canada was quite strong. I asked Alejandro a week or two before we left which city he was most interested in going to and his answer was Toronto. We started our planning for the trip and I just couldn’t get the nagging thoughts out of my head that I have always wanted t o go to D.C. and it would be great to do that near Independence Day. So, we went.

It was a long drive, but we got to drive around a few more states than we had before. Alejandro’s car didn’t like the mountains of West Virginia or Maryland too much, but we got there. It was great to make the drive into D.C. and drive past CIA Headquarters, the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery, and other monuments. It felt like all of a sudden the pictures that I already had in my head began to be connected to one another.

We set-up shop in the Capitol Hill Suites, next to the Library of Congress and a couple blocks away from The Capitol building. We fit so snugly into the townhomes and the historical buildings that it was easy to imagine living in the area. For the next few days we walked, took the Metro, and drove to several of the sights. D.C. and its surrounding areas have an interesting character.

One of the things I noticed that wasn’t too surprising was the nature of the vehicles we saw most often. Especially around the CIA Headquarters and the Pentagon there were quite a few four door sedans that were practical, non-descript, and slightly expensive. Sometimes stereotypes are true. It made me re-kindle my love for the BMW. I’m sorry to say that Mia is a cheap version of the BMW and I lust for the real thing, among other cars of course.

Spy fantasies aside, it was a good trip. We drove back on July 3rd to be here in time for the family get together at my brother’s house. It was a rainy holiday, but we managed to blow a few things up by the time the weekend was over and it was good to see everyone. And now we must plan for our next vacation ….

The Track, Part III

It’s been about three weeks since I took my little Mia the Kia in to get some much needed life support. Since then 33 cars and drivers have qualified for the Indianapolis 500 mile race. This weekend hundreds of thousands of people will pour into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to drink, eat, bake in the sun, and pack into hot, hard bleacher seats like sardines all for the “love” of Indycar racing. Does that sound like fun?

Since I have made this trip to the Speedway track many times I can’t say that it is exactly the most fun thing to be a part of, but old traditions die hard. I was going to go to the track today to witness the Carburation Day festivities, but even my Dad, the biggest Indycar racing fan I know, is bailing out on this day too. So, this morning I slept in ‘til 8:00, woke up, surfed the net, and finished reading a book. It’s a far better pastime than plopping my butt onto a hot, hard bleacher and getting a sun burn watching a couple cars zip past me over and over again.

Over the years I have come to understand that it is not the cars or even the race itself that makes a person want to go to this place. It’s the people. When you walk in to the 2.5 mile round arena that is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway you are thrust into a community that is larger than what you have experienced before. Several hundred thousand people all gathered in one spot to share the same experience gives you an awesome energy rush.

Once you take a seat on one of those hot, hard bleacher seats you need only look around you at the human eye candy to see just how small or large your existence is. If you look off into the distance and see masses of people rising, falling, and milling about like ants making honey you realize just how small and insignificant the life of an individual can be. However, if you look closer you can see perhaps a driver in the race, a white collar business man with an expensive beer in hand, or the roofer with his shirt off and sweat glistening off his deeply tanned back. The track becomes a place where you can disappear, imagine a different life, or simply celebrate a life through one of the largest communal activities known to man. It’s a place to reflect.

However, today I chose to reflect on life in a different way. I checked Mia out of the hospital yesterday and we are going to have some alone time this afternoon to get reacquainted with ourselves and one another. Ahhhh! Happy travels lie ahead ….