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June 25, 2003

Hold the wheel and drive

I love this road trip! Anne and I have been taking our time, exploring small towns (abandoned and otherwise) all along the way. XM radio has provided a wonderful soundtrack, (it's all about Fred and Ethel, the classic rock station, and the 60s . . . but I will admit that we turned on classic country when we drove into Texas. It seemed appropriate at the time.

Is anyone listening to the audio blog? It's fun for me, but I haven't found my "voice" yet. It will get better, though. I thought it may be cool to take my phone on stage at the Trek convention, and have the audience shout something out. Something like, "The Trogdor comes in the night!"

I just love spending all this time with my wife, too. It takes a very specific type of chemistry to sit next to each other in a car for 8 hours a day, and I'm proud to report that our marriage is safely intact. :-)

Couple of things I forgot to mention in the audblog:

When we stopped in Williams, we ate dinner in a hotel restaurant, where our waiter was:

1. Left-handed
2. From California
3. Named "Wil" and spelled with JUST ONE L!!

Those of you who are official stalkers will know that I fit all three of those criteria. He had a beard, so I decided that he is The Evil Twin.

Somewhere before Williams, Anne said, "What does this button on the mirror do?" as she pushed it. The radio fell silent, and a voice said, "Connecting to On*Star . . ." (I swear, you could hear the asterisk in the computerized voice)

We both looked at each other, sort of shocked, and I said, "It's a rental car. there is no way the On*Star (again, I made sure to pronounce the asterisk) is going to be turned on."

"Why are you pronouncing the asterisk?" Anne asked.

Before I could reply, a soft and friendly voice came out of our speakers. It said, "Welcome to OnStar (no asterisk, this time . . . weird). How are things out there in Arizona?"

It was like the teacher came into the classroom, and caught me setting my desk on fire. And I wasn't wearing any pants. And the other kids were all tied up with electrical tape.

"Oh, uh . . . it's fine!" we said.

"What can I help you with tonight?"

"Well, here's the deal: this is a rental car, and we're just fooling around with the buttons . . . so . . . how are you?"

She laughed, and we talked about stupid stuff for a few minutes. I thought it was really cool, despite my inner privacy-zealot screaming at me "THEY KNOW WHERE YOU ARE!! THEY KNOW YOU'RE DRIVING TEN MILES OVER THE LIMIT!! THEY KNOW YOU PRONOUNCE THE ASTERISK WITHOUT KNOWING WHY!!!11"

We told her we were heading into Williams, and she told us to have a nice drive.

Which we did.

Posted by wil at June 25, 2003 08:57 PM

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