Driving in the U.S. is a pleasure. There is nothing more comfortable in this country than cars and roads. And there is nothing people do care more about. Driving from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Marfa, Texas, I detected the cruise function in my rental car.
That is awesome! You pull a little switch and the car glides down the freeway with nothing but a tender move of my right hand to keep track. I didn’t even have to worry about the directions because a tiny black box, known as GPS, guided me to the right path. That device is called “Hertz Never Lost”.
Well, even a machine can’t always keep its promises. In the heat of the Southwest Texas desert the GPS started to faint. I kept on cruising – listening to the new Morcheeba CD and having been shifted into a superordinate mental zone where one couldn’t care less about routes. After a while it said: „When possible make a legal u-turn”, then constantly repeating itself. Interestingly enough I have a weakness for illegal u-turns not only when it comes to traffic. This time it was a bit more difficult. On an interstate through the desert with sandheaps between the tracks and trucks all over the place it would have been a bad idea to try one – legal or illegal. So I kept on cruising thinking there was plenty of time to arrive in Marfa.
What retracted me from my meditation ride was a police car behind me making an unpleasant noise and turning up the headlights in short intervals. It took me a while but then I realized that I would better have stopped immediately. So I did. The policeman approached my window and asked for the drivers licence. Everything was okay – my licence, the rental car contract, even me I think – but not my speed. “You were checked at a speed of 99 miles” said the officer, “while 60 miles are allowed.” I stared at him slowly realizing that this would become one of the more expensive lessons in meditation. He stared back. I tried to concentrate. Then I chose to perform the silly one. I explained to him that I could’t believe what he was telling me because I was always strictly obedient to speed limits. And then I started to blame the cruise function (which was really unfair because I had had so much fun before). I told him there was much too much technology in these modern cars and that one couldn’t concentrate on the driving anymore not to speak of speed limits because the car permanently demanded communication processes between its electronics and the driver.
“I’ll be right back” said the officer and I lost any hope to get away with this. Then he came back: “It’s a warning. But be sure now to watch your speed.” I happily took the ticket I would not have to pay for and by chance saw his watch. It was an hour later than I thought. I had just forgotten about the time difference between New Mexico and Texas. My meeting in Marfa was overdue and I had just saved a lot of money. So I went on (rediscovering slowness) and had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc in a patio bar in Marfa. What a wonderful cruise day forever lost!
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