Across The USA by Dodge
Chapter 7: The Trusty Dodge
The car! 3ADK934.
The car I hired (via the travel agent in Australia) was a Dodge Spirit. Now, the Dodge isn't exactly the most glamorous motor vehicle on the road -- Al Bundy drives one -- but it was reliable, comfortable and didn't get stolen or car-jacked so what more can you ask?
It's a comfortable medium size car, although not that much smaller than a commodore for example. Between a commodore and a camry. It had air conditioning, airbag and a radio but no cassette.
[The radio in the states is pretty shitty for the most part. There was a good station in Arizona that I listened to for a couple of days driving across that state which actually played a lot of Australian music and one of the female DJ's seemed to be a big fan of The Church and played "Like A Ghost" three or four times in those two days.
Texas radio plays country while most of the others were bland, nothing like JJJ for instance. More your local station that does a live broadcast from Big Bob's Bargain Basement Buicks or the local mall and plays golden oldies or MOR rubbish like Mariah Carey.]
Actually, the ole Dodge Spirit seems to be the nondescript vehicle apparently favoured by government types. The reason I say that is that while I was parking in a lot in Monterey, a girl wandered up to me. She was about 30, long flowing dress, like she'd just stepped out of a Jack Nicholson/Bruce Dern movie from the 60's. I saw her coming across the mostly empty lot and make a beeline to the car. What does she want I thought to myself, half-expecting her to pull out a gun and rob me.
She looked at the car for a while, drew her breath then launched into a tirade against the government and the welfare state and how "You people have created a homeless society."
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't you work for the government? "
"Well yes, but not the American government. "
"Say what? You're not an FBI agent? "
"Hey I'm not from America. I'm just here on a holiday."
"Oh." She though for a while. "I thought you had a funny accent ... Can you lend me a dollar for a cup of coffee."
"No, I haven't got any change" I lied as I locked the door and started walking towards the pier.
Is she going to follow me, pull a knife or gun and shoot me in the back, kick the hell out of the car maybe? I turned back around and she was just wandering towards another car that had just pulled up.
"Hey mister can you lend me a dollar for a cup of coffee."
The car was hired from General which is a fairly low-key player in the rental wars over there. I paid for the six weeks rental before I left in Australian dollars which works out cheaper. It cost only A$135 a week for the car which is amazing I think.
The rental place was a bit of a hassle actually. I had the car for seven weeks of the eight I was there and had two vouchers covering a four-week period and a three-week period. Apparently you can only hire a car for a maximum of four weeks at a time.
Anyway I spent a week in LA before I had to pick up the car. In that time I went to Disneyland and other tours of the city so I didn't need a car during that time. That meant another ride in the Big Silver Bus from Anaheim back to near the LAX where all the rental places are.
So I arrive at the place and walk up to the counter and show the guy there the vouchers and he's a bit puzzled as he hasn't seen too many of them before. He calls out his supervisor and they jabber away (remember that Seinfeld episode?) then make me sign some papers and tell me about a deal where you pre-pay for a tank of fuel which sounded reasonable but is really a rip-off. You normally have to return the car filled but if you pre-pay you don't have to. They try and make everyone take that deal. It would be OK if you could bring the car back right on empty.
So finally I get the keys and drive out into the peak-hour freeway traffic of Los Angeles. Some introduction to the right side of the road driving.
Anyway, when the first voucher ran out I had to take the car to the nearest general Rental outlet and get it serviced. That was in Albuquerque so I phoned them and took the car around for what they promised would be a one-hour service.
So I get there and the guy takes the car away to fix it while the counter-guy starts doing the paperwork and offers me another pre-paid gas deal. Forget it pal. So an hour later I'm on my way.
Then the end of the saga is back in LA on the last day when I'm dropping off the car.
Counter-guy looks at the rental agreement I'd got from Albuquerque and says I have to pay a $200 fee for not returning the vehicle to the same agency I rented it from. Hey buddy-boy I got the car from LA. He scratches his head in puzzlement taps away at the computer for five minutes while I'm standing there surrounded by luggage as the line grows longer until people are hanging out the door. He checks with his counter-compatriots but they don't wanna know.
He calls his supervisor, a female this time, and they jabber away for a while like on Seinfeld, she reads the rental agreement and says this isn't from LA. I show her my copy of the original two vouchers which showed I got the car from LA and she taps away at the computer, points at the screen and finally agrees that it is one of there cars, gets me to sign some document and says I can go.
Chapter 8
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