Hit the road, Jack.
“There’s no place like the interstate for the holidays … ”
Woke up this morning for breakfast, but the Barbecue House was closed. Everyone who’s ever been in the parking lot of a closed restaurant has muttered oaths and proclaimed the owners as losers of money. You want to spend yours there, after all. But who knows what drove the man to make this choice?
Maybe he just wanted a break. Maybe opening for lunch at 10 means he can sleep in until 8. Maybe he has a problem with biscuits. Maybe there’s a shortage of butter.
You never know. (Though I’ll ask Mr. Price next time I see him.) You just go find breakfast somewhere else. So we went to Cracker Barrel, where there are neither barrels nor crackers. Breakfast. And then packed for the first of the holiday adventures.
After packing — or maybe it was during? — I had to take a short nap. Apparently all of my energy hasn’t yet returned.
So. Finished packing. I had my oil changed before leaving and the guy noticed I have a blown headlight.
I’ll fix that, then.
“Well … The dealerships like you to bring these in because there’s a seal … ”
Designers have begun engineering cars to so completely befuddle the average owner that you must bring your car back to the dealership.
I called the dealership to ask them about how much this would cost.
About $175, to $310, depending on the kind of light in it, he said.
So I’ll be doing that at home. Not that I’d intended to take the thing in. I believe I can turn the wheel, turn a 10mm wrench and find 10 minutes to spare.
Halfway through the drive there was a visit to the mall, which was actually painless, and then a bookstore for a brief bout of Christmas shopping. Dinner at Jim ‘N’ Nicks in Gardendale — has the chain gone downhill since we left town or just that store? — and then the rest of the drive. Lots of driving.
Made it in just before midnight. Everyone was already asleep. Oh yes, the road hits back.
