Something for everyone

RiCharlie

Hi everyone!
I wrote something that i hoped all would enjoy but it probably got lost within another really large thread.. I checked with the administrator and he said it would be okay to re-post it starting a new thread..It originally was posted under the thread "What did you do with your Z today"
I had a lot of fun writing this and really want to make sure everyone reads it and I really, really want everyone to have has as much fun reading it as I did writing it! Hopefully you can all relate to this... Here goes...


It's one of my favorite times of day. Late in the afternoon when then sun is low in the horizon giving shape and texture to the clouds and casting a golden light over the land below. It's “Z” time.

I open the door , first to my garage then to my car. I slip into the drivers seat. I notice a few flecks on the steering wheel. I brush them away with my hand. No dust allowed here. My foot depresses the brake pedal and I push “Start.”

Instantly, the motor comes alive with a deep throated growl. Not too loud. Not too soft. Just the right notes. Slowly I back out, careful not to scrape the sides. Once outside I get out to close the garage door but before I do I remember something. Yesterday after I washed it, I failed to clean the windows and there was quite a bit of streaking. I return to the garage, retrieve a can of foaming glass cleaner and a nice clean cloth and then carefully clean both the front and rear windows. I notice a small black spot on the front hood but it comes off with a spritz of cleaner and a wipe of the rag. One last look then I put the cleaners back in the garage and pull down the garage door which hits the concrete with a thud. Then I turn toward the Z.

I never tire of looking at her beauty. With its low, compact lines and its pearl white body gleaming in the afternoon sunlight, it seems more a work of art than a machine.


I smile, take one last look and then I enter the cabin and slowly back down the rest of the driveway this time careful to avoid my wife's ten year old Honda parked along one side and a black lamppost on the other. Once into the road, I turn and head down our street, then, left on a larger road for about a mile and then right on another main drive until I reach the sign that says “295 North.” Route 295 starts south of Providence off I-95, curves up around to the west of the city and rejoins I-95 again north of the city. It's a high speed, six lane divided highway with three lanes and a breakdown each way separated by a median that is always at least one hundred feet wide. Often the separation is so great you can't even see the road heading in the opposite direction. It's an ideal road for driving.

The entrance at this point is a long “S” curve. I press down lightly on the accelerator and the “Z” surges forward. Not a mad dash but a well-controlled acceleration that effortlessly carries me through each curve with tires gripping and the wind beginning to rush through the cabin. Ahead, already on the highway, I notice several cars in a bunch and so I am careful when merging. I soon I find myself in the middle lane surrounded on the right by an old Ford. In front of me there is a Toyota Corolla and on the left I notice a small SUV of some sort. We travel together for a short distance and when I glance to the left I notice a young boy of about nine and his father in that SUV. He smiles, waves and gives me the thumbs up sign. I respond with a wave and a smile. Then the Corolla in front of me moves right leaving the road ahead clear. I gently depress the accelerator and watch in my rear view mirror as the others fall behind. Now there are no cars in front of me and soon those in back are a distant view. Soon I am alone on the highway. My GPS says the exit I want is 27 miles ahead. A smile breaks over my face.

I hear the rushing sound of the wind all around me. I feel it on my hand and face. I listen but cannot clearly hear the sound of the tires on the road. I know it must be there but with windows wide open, it's hard to distinguish from the wind. I cannot even hear the motor. I press gently on the accelerator and way down low I hear the faint sound of the engine adding a bit more speed. But mostly it's just the wind.

I notice a gentle rocking motion as the car glides over slight imperfections in the road but the overwhelming impression is one of stability and sure-footedness. I once read a review saying this car was more stable at a hundred than most others are sitting in the parking lot. And it's nearly true.

Together we climb up a steep hill through a deep rock canyon then gently down across a wide expanse of rolling hills. Ahead is a ribbon of highway, sometimes straight, sometimes curving around, winding through hills and meadows and tall grass lit by the golden light of the late-afternoon late summer sun.

It's not long before I see the distant shapes of other cars on the horizon.

I approach them slowly realizing that at any moment one might bolt from the pack right into my lane without looking, after all there are all kinds of drivers on the road. There are those that should have turned in their license years ago when their abilities started declining. There are people with screaming kids in the car and people whose minds are quietly elsewhere on serious problems at home or at work; young women putting on make-up and young men out to prove their manhood; cell phone users and assorted “text-ers” all using the very same highway. I give them plenty of room.

I get great pride as I pass each and every car slowly enough to give each driver and passenger time to drink in the beauty of my little beast. There are few that are better and none as attractive. It's like having the high school beauty queen at your side at the beach! It's an unabashed, vain, puffed-up ego trip. And I have to shamelessly admit, I love it!

Ahead and to the right, I see a mid-size sedan with a badge in the shape of a circle with a bar running through it. It's a Nissan. It's nice to see a member of the family! I have to get close to tell exactly what is it. Mostly it turns out to be an Altima, but this time it's a Maxima. I slowly easy by sending out a mental message to the driver, “I see we have both joined the Nissan family but I am the bad boy of the group!”

Of all the cars I enjoy finding on the road none is as satisfying as a new Cadillac. Unquestionably, this has to do with my father.

You see, even though my father loved Cadillacs, he never owned one. He was just a middle income guy and his car was a Buick Roadmaster with whitewall tires. It was a good car for its day but just not the same. When I was seventeen he bought a Pontiac Bonneville which was quite sporty in our minds. I distinctly remember the day I timed it and found it shot from zero to sixty in an amazing fourteen seconds! He liked it but still it was not a Cadillac.

Dad died many years ago never having realized his dream of owning a “Caddy.” Now, there's one right in front of me. It's black and best of all, it's in the left lane leading the pack. I ease over into the middle lane, behind and to the right of the one in front. I push down on the accelerator. Instantly the Z surges forward in an impressive display of power and I race past the Caddy. Soon he is far behind. Chalk up one for dad.

I suddenly realize I am well above the legal speed limit and so I gently brake fearing the worst may be lurking around the next corner or over the next hill.

As I slow down I notice in the rear view mirror I notice a car rapidly gaining on me. As it gets closer I notice it's a BMW. Maybe I could out run him if I wanted but I have no desire to engage in dangerous games. So I move to the middle and let him pass. He passes and a while later disappears over the horizon.

My mind wanders off to the previous night when I took my wife to visit our son. It's about a twelve mile drive along a winding two lane highway into the wooded area between our house and the Connecticut boarder. I know she does not share my enthusiasm for my car. In fact, I know she does not like it at all and thinks of it only as some symbol of yet another male identity crisis. She complains it is too rough, she sits too low and I drive too fast. So to please her on the way I try extra hard to avoid rough spots in the road, give her two pillows to sit on and, most difficult of all, I drive at a speed which guarantees I will not hear the dreaded words, “Slow Down!” And so I plod along and in the process stifle my emotions as my 370 is passed in succession by a bunch of kids in a beat-up Pontiac, a woman in a Honda Accord and two gray-haired senior citizens in a Neon. In spite of my best efforts at deception, at the end she said to me, “ I think you drive differently when I am in the car.” That was yesterday. Today I am alone. The drive is perfect and the silence is golden.

As I cruse along the highway I sometimes wonder if other drivers are deliberately trying to get me to show off my Z. They always seem to get right on my tail often crossing several crowded lanes to do so. Or they pass no matter what the conditions are. Are they trying to prove something? Do they want me to race? Or is it just me incredulous at how fast and reckless some drivers are even in the most ill suited cars? It's a question I often ask but I never rise to any challenges real or imagined. Good thing. As I round a corner I see the BMW again. This time it's stopped on the side of the road with a police car parked behind. I can't help but laugh!

I reach my exit and get off. I stop at a red light. Looking over to my right, a red headed woman in a white car looks over and gives me a big smile. I smile back. She is about my daughters age but what the heck. No harm done.

From here it's a short drive to see the people I have come to see. I look at the odometer and quickly calculate that I have used about six dollars worth of gas, if gas can be said to be “worth” four dollars a gallon. “Outrageous!” I think to myself. But then I know my company reimburses me for gas, plus I am paid by the hour from home. So I smile. And then there is the ride back. And so I smile some more.
And that is what I did with my Z today!

OK fellow Z'ers. that is it..... hope you enjoyed reading my little story as much as I enjoyed writing it!
RI Charlie

dAvenue

That was a nice and well written story. Fun to read.

It's not just you. I've noticed the exact same thing, time and time again. It can be annoying sometimes.

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waaaasabi

Ah, much like how Prince likes his rain, this is how I like my prose - considerably purple

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That's SOOOO not Raven!

anthonyy

TL;DR OP loves his car

kenchan

Do you have a CD version?

Skeeterbop

In for cliff's notes!

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Srenity: "Yeah no rest needed to spread the love when your 20 that's for sure...."

happytheman

Great read...but I think it's a repost!

What did you do with your Z today

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--Brantly--

Rui Z

Beautiful. Thank you.

Z

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Nismo89

OP.... thats exactly how i feel! =) i absolutely adore my Z! and i love bringing it out just before sunrise OR sunset, and driving not fast at all, nice and slow, windows down... ahh OMG I WANT TO DRIVE!

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Why yes.. Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs, The Ford Commericals,Deadliest Catch.. is my cousin.
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i outta back hand you with my right hand! and call you b*tch!..... and im Left handed!

Lug

Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply not enough zombies, that's all. Just add a few and it will be perfect.

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keep Chubbs in your pocket - Chubbs

dAvenue

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cossie1600

You guys are lucky. Driving in the city completely ruins any driving experience for me. It doesn't matter if I am driving a GT3 my Z or the Prius. The traffic, cops, speed limit, idiots making driving more of a drag than it is fun for me

Mt Tam I am

This is the reason to own a sports car. You can feel the OP's passion.

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RiCharlie

You are right ! Its actually a repost with the admins ok.,,.HOWEVER one line has been added and if you can spot it you win a New Z!!!

UNKNOWN_370

Hahaha... its funny because I went to abilene 2 weeks ago. I took the altima though. I had some chump in a cadillac get uptight because I passed him I guess? I was cruising at around 82mph on the left lane of a two lane highway. He must have been doing 65 in a 70 on the right line. I'm guessing he felt his v8 seville should not have been shown out by a 2012 altima 2.5S. Not that anyone was showing out. I was cruising at 82 because I have a 5 hour drive from midland back to DFW tx.
So now he's taking off from the right he begins to cruise at 90mph. Just to see if his intention was to outrun me I decided to start accelerating enough to catch up. He takes off on me doing what I percieve to be about 100mph. I slow down and laugh and think "what a loser". LOL. The road is failrly empty except for me the caddy a tahoe and 2 18 wheelers and we are spread over a mile stretch. I see the caddy disappearing and I'm thinking, great opprortunity to bring my speed up to 85 and make good time going home.
Suddenly I begin to see the caddy again at about the half mile mark ahead of me. I guess he notices that I'm catching up. So he decides to take off again. My guess he slowed down to speed limit and when he saw me again he decided to take off. I never touched the accelerator. From the moment I saw him the car remained on cruise the whole time. So I'm guessing when he saw me he had been doing the speed limit again. His frustration of seeing my front grille in his mirror at a distance must have aggravated him????
At this point the Cadiloser decides he's going for the "GUSTO" and really show me who's the fastest on the block.
He takes off like a bat out of hell, my guess he floored the car to top speed in order to get really far ahead of me???? He literally disappears at about a mile away over the hill of the highway. I make it over the hill and about 1 mile away there's another hill and he's barely going over it. I'm like... WOW, he's really hitting moronic speeds for no reason. I'm not even interested in racing on roads. I'm just trying to make a long drive a lil shorter.
2 minutes later from my last sighting of his tail. My radar give the the triple-blip of Ka-band. I brake gently to about 75mph and get on the right lane. Then me and my wife look at each other and begin laughing. Lol. We read our facial expressions and both know at that moment cadiloser was going to be pulled over right ahead.
The Ka- began blipping again but now it was continuous and not momentary. My v995 is good. I pick up ka as far as 3 miles away and lower bands even farther if they are actual radars throughing the k and X signal. Many supermarkets throw out lower band signals but I have to be close to them.

Low and behold there he was on the side of the road. I slowed down to about 55mph threw on my hazard and went over to the left lane. As we passed Cadiloser me and my wife waved while laughing in the car. Its awesome when idiots are on the road for those long distance drives. They provide a great source of entertainment. The next 10 miles were pure speed traps so I brought my cruising speed down to 79mph and remained on the right. Cops don't usually pull you over unless you are doing 11miles over the speed limit or more. I guess cadilloser didn't know this? I go an extra 4mph from that because I have radar protection.

This was an awesome write up. It truly deserved its own thread on the forum. I like the part about reminiscing on your dad. It was touching.