That unforgettable way back home.

As you can read in my last two posts (PART 1 and PART 2) I have spent the 4-day weekend in Berkeley with my housemate Mikey. We stayed at his house with his family and I had a great time. I had a chance to visit the town and the university, check out two fraternities, meet some new friends and have some great food. I’ve also seen beautiful landscapes, got a ride in a Porsche race car, and watched a high school baseball game for the first time. The weekend was very fun, but on Monday, on our way back, something unexpected happened. 

The harsh feeling when the car stopped working.

We left the Bay Area around 1:00PM, after we picked up our friend Elena, who needed a ride back to Santa Barbara as well. We were a little tired, and definitely not excited to spend the next 5 and a half hours in the car. After you know how the rest of the day unfolded, you will agree with us that the 5 and a half hours trip would actually have not been all that bad. 

Around 5:00PM, we were on the left lane when the traffic started to slow down, until we ultimately stopped. When it was time to accelerate again, the car totally bailed on us! That cool black Jeep was like: “Nah, I’m done, I am not taking you anywhere!”

A picture of Mikey dealing with the Police. :)

Mikey— the designated driver— turned off the car and then back on; he put it in gear, and… nothing! The engine was raving, but the car was not moving. As we correctly guessed, there was a problem with the transmission, so we needed to get towed. 

Around 6:30PM, the tow truck finally arrived. They hooked us up, and then gave us a ride to the closest dealership, which was just about to close when we got there a few minutes before 7:00PM. A cop who had been with us since around 5:45 gave a ride to Mikey, since he could not fit in the tow truck. 

I never had my car towed before, so it was a completely new experience. 

All very optimist people, we hung out in the parking lot of the dealership until 10:00PM, playing basketball and eating tamales.

We were hoping that some good soul would come all the way from Santa Barbara to pick us up, but we didn't dare asking too many people. All the friends whom we did contact, said they were too busy, so we decided to spend the night at some friends’ house in San Luis Obispo.

I slept on the couch for about four hours, and I took the first train in the morning to Goleta.

Tuesdays (and Thursdays) are very long days for me, with work, classes, and club leadership meetings all day long, from 9:00 am to 9:00pm.

The train ride had some beautiful views.

When I finally got back home on Tuesday night I was dead tired, still wearing the same clothes (I could only manage to change my shirt) and only kept awake by inconsiderate amounts of caffeine. 

After a nice shower, I finally saw my bed again, from which I have been separated for 5 days. I had a good night sleep.



A presto,

- Fede