Adventures in driving

You all have some great stories. I had a similar teenage drinking and driving story like Jad. It amazes me that 40 years ago the cops would let you drive home. They just emptied out the beer and said to drive slow home. We were WAY out in the sticks. Times were really different then. Funny thing was I was the sober one and not driving. It was my friends car and he didn’t want anyone else to drive. We had no driver awareness back then I guess.
 
One day not too long ago I was going to the grocery store with my Mom. I said that the guy up ahead is flashing the lights so there's a cop up ahead.
How do you know there is a cop up ahead?
That's what people do to avoid a ticket.
Mom said, "Why didn't my father or your father ever tell me that?"
I think they want you to slow down.;)
 
Wow that was good and fast thinking by your friend. Probably saved your lives.
Yeah my niceness could have been the death of me,a life lesson I was lucky to survive through.I must have been naïve, my mate was a big dumb ox type, but wiser than me.
 
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When I was 17 and living down in the low country (South Carolina) I ran into a young (15) runaway who was living with a much older guy who was a drill instructor on the base there. He had let her use this old Corvair (remember those) with a standard transmission and shoe strings rigged together to work the clutch (don't ask) to run around in and we happened to be at the same place at the same time. She told me her story, and being the liberated 17 yr old I was, I expressed my thoughts on the matter and off we went in that old Corvair to get her belongs. Now, this guy lived in a trailer in a rather isolated trailer park that sat at the bottom of a pretty steep hill. She was thinking he wasn't home because it was early afternoon but she was still a little skittish about parking in front of the trailer so we parked up top of the hill and began to walk down. About half way down I heard a strange sound and looked back. There came that old Corvair down that hill, picking up speed on the way. I just remember I looked at her and she looked at me and we made a quick departure to one side and watched. That old Corvair was probably hitting what? 40-50 miles and hour by the time it got all the way down the hill -- and low and behold -- it just kept on going... Right through that dude's trailer. I mean THROUGH it. She was freaking out and scared to death what he would do with her. I asked her, "how old are you"? "15". "And how old is he"? "30's". Nothing. He's not going to do anything girl. Let's go. And we did.
 
When I was 17 and living down in the low country (South Carolina) I ran into a young (15) runaway who was living with a much older guy who was a drill instructor on the base there. He had let her use this old Corvair (remember those) with a standard transmission and shoe strings rigged together to work the clutch (don't ask) to run around in and we happened to be at the same place at the same time. She told me her story, and being the liberated 17 yr old I was, I expressed my thoughts on the matter and off we went in that old Corvair to get her belongs. Now, this guy lived in a trailer in a rather isolated trailer park that sat at the bottom of a pretty steep hill. She was thinking he wasn't home because it was early afternoon but she was still a little skittish about parking in front of the trailer so we parked up top of the hill and began to walk down. About half way down I heard a strange sound and looked back. There came that old Corvair down that hill, picking up speed on the way. I just remember I looked at her and she looked at me and we made a quick departure to one side and watched. That old Corvair was probably hitting what? 40-50 miles and hour by the time it got all the way down the hill -- and low and behold -- it just kept on going... Right through that dude's trailer. I mean THROUGH it. She was freaking out and scared to death what he would do with her. I asked her, "how old are you"? "15". "And how old is he"? "30's". Nothing. He's not going to do anything girl. Let's go. And we did.
BLUE RIBBON STORY!!!!
 
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Several years ago my wife and I were driving cross country to visit family. We were young and didn't have kids yet so I had started driving and when it got late we switched so we could drive through the night. I was asleep in the passenger seat and woke up enough to ask how my wife was doing. She was fine so I asked how we were looking on gas, "Oops!" (Well she didn't actually say oops but it's more family friendly that what she did say) She didn't remember seeing the gas light come on and the needle was on Empty. She said she would stop at the next exit.

As I was settling back down I saw the exit pass by, "Weren't you going to stop?" I asked. "Oops!" There was another exit a few miles down the highway so she promised to stop there. However, a few minutes later I saw another exit zip by. "Oops!" So now I'm sitting up and wide awake to make sure that she actually gets off at the next exit, because if we run out of gas at 2:00 in the morning I know that she's not the one who's going to volunteer for the walk to the nearest gas station. Fortunately we make it to the next exit and pull into a 24 hour gas station.

I notice a car parked off at the edge of the lot. It's hood is open and there is a young man, a bit younger than me, looking at the engine like a kid who hasn't studied for a test and isn't even sure what class it's for. I decide to walk over and ask if he needs help and see that there is a very pregnant, very worried woman in the passenger seat and a young child asleep in a car seat in the back. As I approach the guy turns to me and blurts out "I don't know anything about cars!" He then holds up his hands and I see he has a small roll of electrical tape and a cheap pair of pliers, he says "I just bought these inside but I'm not sure what to do with them."

I introduced myself and told the guy I knew a lot about cars. It turns out that the battery cable had come loose, it was still attached firmly to the battery but the other end was just hanging loose. My guess is that the nut which holds the cable in place had come loose and fallen off somewhere on the highway.

At that point I went into MacGyver mode, I grabbed the toolbox out of my trunk and created a makeshift nut out of a washer, a socket from my wrench box and his electrical tape. During this time I explained what I was doing and why. I told him that this was very much a band-aid and that he needed to get his car to a real mechanic ASAP. He promised to take the car in later that morning and thanked me profusely. He offered to pay for the parts I used and tried handing me $20. I told him those parts will cost me about 75 cents to replace so not to worry about it.