The past Saturday (The 4th of October, 2008) was quite momentous for me in more ways than one. Sure, I took a tumble out of a plane for the biggest rush of my life, but it was also the day I drove my first car in the USA. The core of the American lifestyle being the automobile, there was no way that my American experience was going to be complete without venturing out onto the freeways in the driver's seat.
And I managed to rent a spanking new car too for my first escapade on US roads. A low, slung mean machine with a Porsche style 4-cylinder boxer engine was my weapon of choice. It was a pearly white Subaru Legacy (A 2008 model at that) and it had a really sweet sounding engine. With Subaru's rallying legacy behind it, this car couldn't help being anything but a cracker. Out onto a 4 lane freeway for the first time, the car felt impeccably well planted as I whizzed past all other cars on the road. Then I looked at the speedo to find myself doing a 90 mph (144 kmph) in a 65 mph zone. Thankfully there was no cop with a speed gun nearabout or along with my first car drive would've been my first heavy speeding ticket too!
The roads through Rhode Island and Massachusetts are really picturesque at this time of the year with the leaves on the trees turning yellow and the mild sunshine lending a shade of honey to everything around. I got a taste of what I had been missing these past 3 months when I was cooped up inside my little studio apartment wasting time on Orkut. To feel America, you can't just be walking on the road even though there are many pretty sights to see. You've got to be on the road, with the radio playing on and the faint buzz of your car's tyres intruding as you whizz along the freeways of life.
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