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It all started two days earlier as I was looking for a car online, when I happened to spot this too good to be true Integra. I called the country boy on the other end and found out he lived over 500km away. I talked him down to a price that was wayyyyyy too good to be true so I had to do a REVS check - Clean! I talked to a mate about helping me pick the car up. My mate agreed to help so I arranged to see the car for the coming Saturday. We knew we had a long drive ahead of us - Here was the agenda:
Goal: Pick up a car
- Car
- Petrol
- Money for food
- GPS
- FM Transmitter for music
Things we forgot to factor in:
- The GPS needs the cigarette lighter to run - The FM transmitter needs the cigarette lighter to run at all - Nice...
- Phones - My battery was less than half full which I thought was enough.
- A second E-Tag for the trip home... It's not like it was hard - I have two, I just didn't think about it.
0730 - My journey begins - Cold, shivering from the morning breeze.
I pick up my mate and began the enduring drive. First thing we realised was that we could not listen to music and use the GPS at the same time. Needless to say the GPS won that battle. My phone has an FM transmitting function, however with my battery running low, I thought we'd better play it smart and conserve it. We had not even ONE CD in the whole car, except for some gibberish we call Vietnamese music. The choice was simple - The radio, or driving myself off a bridge listening to mum's music. We chose the radio.
0930 - We're getting hungry. Wherever we were, the radio wasn't working properly anymore. There's constant static, and the radio cuts out.
1000 - The breakfast of champions! We stop by a Mac Donalds and eat. We played 'Spot the Asian' and saw three in total. This is in a span of 30 minutes. I needed to pee. I pee'd. We left.
1100 - The radio no longer works. I the silence was deafening. Ow.
1130 - Our phones no longer work. What's happening? Where are we? My friend starts to break down from deprivation of TXTing. My butt gets tired.
1200 - The front of the car is covered in cicadas - literally. You could not see the iconic 'H' emblem. Nor could you catch a glimpse of the radiator. I wondered how the car was staying cool. I also wondered why girls were so complicated, why guys are obsessed with cars and if there is anything in black tea that isn't in green tea (I've since found that black tea is good in it's own ways, guys like cars and girls just suck, period. I still like them though and green tea still pawns).
1230 - My butt is tired. Road is completely flat and clear. Find out that the top speed of the Honda Jazz is 150km/h exactly @ 5000rpm. It refuses to go any faster. Good thing too - Any faster and the Cicadas might actually break through the windscreen.
1240 - We get to a point where the GPS wants us to drive on private property. The gate is closed. We take a 10km detour.
1300 - Mate takes over. I try to sleep. Mate tests the strength of the windscreen.
1330 - We're getting closer. We can smell the car. The battle between the cicadas and the windscreen was getting heated. So was the engine. I asked my friend to slow down a bit (party pooper). The windscreen wins.
1400 - We get there. I see my beat up banger. I fall in love. I knocked even more money off the price and hand over the cash - I am again, a proud owner of an Integra (albeit a beat up one). I watched in my rear-view mirror as the country boy waves goodbye.We start heading back.
1430 - I scrap the bottom of the front of the car. I wince a bit.
1440 - I break a bit of my front bumper. I swear at myself.
1455 - I scrap again. Nice. Man this car is low...
1530 - A suicidal cow walks in front of my car. I break. I miss it by a few metres. It looks at me. Calls me a jerk (in his mind), turns around and walks back into the bushes. I continue driving.
1600 - We're on a weird, small road. It's only big enough for one car. It's raised too high for me to drive to the side. I hold my breath at every hill, dreading the fact that another car could easily be coming the other way.
1605 - A sheep emerges. I stop. It looks at me as it's walking. It gets off the road and I'm about it set off again when I see another one. And another one. And another one... This went on for about 10 minutes. Stupidly, I didn't take many photos. I do have one though...
1630 - The road is big, flat and clear - I open her up. I hit 160 before I chicken out. I'm happy.
1631+ - The drive is uneventful from here onwards. A lot of the roads were unlit. We're both tired. At one point I accelerated at full throttle at a corner due to my friend lacking concentration and not breaking in time, almost hitting me in the rear... At which point we took a rest...
All in all it was worth it. The car's only flaws are cosmetic. Note that this car cost 1/4 what my other Integra cost me (which was also a bargain), and all it has is dents/scratches (which I intend to fix myself). It was a great 14 hour adventure, and definitely something I've never done before. Making it back with the Integra proved that it was a sturdy piece of machinery (still looks like heck though). Being 9cm off the ground was something to get used to, however now that I'm used to it it's become second nature. It will be lower once I change out the oversized wheels!
I'll post up pics soon - Have to steal them off my friend.
Ciaos!
