Interesting.
Yesterday I had to pick up some items from our painter that will end up on our showroom floor. So i had to rent a uhaul- a big one.
I have done this before, plenty of times, but yesterday I was handed the keys to a brand spanking new 17 footer.
Now, I have never driven a new Uhaul before. Usually, they have been used and abused by the time I put my hands on them, and don’t drive straight down the road anymore, often have large pieces missing, the box smells like a meth lab and the cab smells like someone drowned a mangy hyena in a tub of rancid cantu shea butter and left it in the sun to percolate.
So to sit on clean seats in a cab smelling of freshly minted naugahyde while driving a vehicle that acted like new was- well, maybe not enjoyable, but less revolting than usual. Then on the way back I put it through it’s paces- it was empty, and I wasn’t going to destroy anything, and I bought the insurance.
It is remarkably easy to light up the tires on an empty Uhaul. Doing so in front of the retirement home might have been mean, the grou pf them sittting out on the lawn must have thought the Reaper had come for the lot of them, and brought a truck so he’d have something to haul them all in.
Freeway ON ramps with the leaning truck and the “TRUCKS 35MPH” were like a challenge. The tail on the sucker kept trying to kick out around 65, but I figured if I lifted I would reap the whirlwind, so I just gritted my teeth and kept going.
Poor sucker will probably never be the same.
This is why you always buy insurance on rentals.
I did not get it in the air, but lord, did I try.
So much for the new smell. It is fun to drive a rental with low miles. A rare joy, but a joy one the less.
You do have a gift for describing smells.
P.J. O’Rourke once postulated, that the finest off-road vehicle was neither the Jeep, Land Rover or ‘Murican 4×4.
His claim was, that the best off-road vehicle known to exist, was the rental car, with supplemental insurance.
I do wish I remembered from which of his books that was written, I’d get it and read it again. His version was waaayyyyy funnier than mine!
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
Naughahyde.
I thought the naugha was on the endangered species list.
Ed,
Only the the Corinthian naugha. Regular naughas are doing just fine.
Joanna, thanks for clearing that up.
Joanna edumacated me too! Here I thought the “Corinthian Naugha” was a cross between a Mariachi Band and “The Tijuana Brass”.
The bat truck will be parked at home while I’m at Dad’s. EJ has the keys so if you need to borrow it, it’s an hour away.
Jim,
Republican Party Reptile. Here’s a link to the article.
Og, I now know who’s been renting the U-Haul trucks before me. Thanks.