One of the first things you learn about American car culture is the “road trip”. Now I had a friend coming over from Seattle to visit New York, and he wanted to see the Niagara Falls. I had bought my first car ever just 6 months ago and I wanted to do a road trip. The plan was to leave in the morning and come back at night. I had never driven for more than 2 hours in one direction at any time. This would be a 7 hour trip one-way!
The MINI
To say the trip was not a smooth one would be an understatement. The number of stupid things I did on this trip is surely a record for any road-trip ever.
The night before, we got a flat tire. Or so I thought. Later I was to find out, it was only out of air. No problem, I thought. We have a spare one, and I got that in place by calling MINI roadside assistance. What I did not know was that the spare tire is not a regular tire, it’s half the size and not meant for normal use. Luckily, before we began, I noticed the smaller size and did some research on the Internet. I found the maximum speed you can travel on it was 50 mph. It did not inspire a lot of confidence. It was half the size of a regular tire.
Since we started off at around 7.30 AM, I thought I would drive for a couple of hours at 50 mph and then get the tire fixed at some garage when they opened. After about 15 minutes, I thought 10 mph more wouldn’t really cause any problems. So I duly set the cruise control to 60. 15 more minutes, and I decided 70 should be safe too. After all, the MINI is essentially a BMW and I had heard a lot about them when I started researching cars. Then I noticed how smooth the highway was. What the hell, cruise control on 80 mph.
After a few hours, the search for a garage began, and it was then that I realized that they do not stay open on Sundays. This made me pretty tense, as I realized I might very well have to cover about 800 more miles on that tiny tire. I was worrying about this, when my friend asked me if the fuel needle dipping below the red mark should be of any concern. Immediately, I switched on the on-board range calculator to see how many more miles I had left. The range display showed nothing. Not even a 0. Quickly I set the destination in my GPS to the nearest gas station. 1 mile away. As an atheist, I could not even pray. So I turned off the car audio and the GPS charger in order to save every drop of gas I could. 1 mile later, I found myself going back in the direction I was coming from. I had taken a wrong turn.
5 minutes later, back in the right direction, and the car spluttered to a halt. Out of gas in the middle of nowhere. There were plenty of cars going by, but after a few minutes, it became apparent, that none of the people traveling that day were ‘Christians’, because no-one stopped. A call to MINI roadside assistance , and 45 minutes later, we were off on our way again.
The rest of the trip was uneventful. Most of it was on cruise control at 80 mph. On at least 3 occasions, I reached 110 mph as I passed other cars. On the way back I drove for 5 hours at a stretch, then had some coffee, and then reached home at 2.30 AM. Astonishingly, I noticed the next day, that the gas mileage registered for the trip was around 38 miles to the gallon!
It was my first road trip and truly a memorable one too, even if I acted stupidly throughout. It is stupid and irrational to feel affection for a car, but I am wiling to sacrifice a little bit of reason in this case. So if you have a MINI, you can have the fullest confidence in it even when running on a spare. The only thing that I noticed was the stopping distance increased a little bit. Of course, you should not drive at more than 50 mph on it and certainly not for a 1000 miles, but you can rest assured that this car does its job and more even on a spare tire.
Are you intentionally trying to be nominated for a Darwin award or just too stupid to notice otherwise?
What you did was illegal, immoral, idiotic, and just plain stupid.
You not only took your life in your hands but the hands of your passenger and other people on the road. What gives you the right?
You give MINI owners a bad name.
root2squared: I lost count of how many times I said aloud, “Oh no! Oh shit!” while reading this! I’m glad you made it back okay, but I just can’t believe you made it that far (and at that speed) on a spare!
truthhurts: In all fairness, it was his first road-trip (so I’m guessing he hasn’t been driving for very long?) and he did acknowledge where he went wrong and that it was “stupid.” Truly stupid folks don’t ever realize when they’ve done something stupid.
Thanks culturepress. Yeah, only been driving for around 6 months. And we were always looking out for garages on the way, and we had to get back that night. I didn’t realize until I got back home and read about it that you’re not supposed to travel more than 200 miles (I think). So yes, it was pretty foolish of me. But hey, I thought it was worth writing about. I don’t know what people like TruthHurts expect me to do. I already said I was stupid. Maybe he expects a public apology on national TV
I think we’re all guilty of doing “stupid” things once in a while. My boyfriend who has a 185 IQ (no lie) and is incredibly intelligent in so many more ways than just quantitatively, is often guilty of doing things that make absolutely no sense whatsoever! The key is to *catch* it. You’ve obviously NOT stupid in any way–you just didn’t plan well for this trip, and you’ve only been driving for a few months. What an adventure, though! I hope it was a lot of fun. I hear Niagara Falls is incredible.