An experience to remember!

I had a thrilling n kind-of dangerous experience on my visit to ‘Mystery spot’ and ‘17 mile drive’ recently :)

The drive to ‘Mystery spot’ was too good! I later realized that I was driving at 45-50mph(70-80kmph) in the Ghat/Mountain section on the highway :D. The later drive off the highway inside the jungle was very scary :) GPS signals lost and no one around etc.

Also, needless to say – the ’17 mile drive’ is very nice! I missed the sunlight though due to fog. I could get the view, but it must be breathtaking in sunlight :P

I had a superb sea-food dinner in one of the local restaurants near 17-mile drive. The Pacific-Salmon beats Atlantic-Salomon – any time! ;-)

I also tried the oyster :P

(The long wait seemed worth but I had to pay it off later :P)

On my return journey at around 10pm, on a highway(US-101 North), the front-left tire of my rented Corolla suddenly got flat :(

The car was pretty new. If the odometer has to be believed, it had been driven around 350 miles only so far(It looked nice n new too). So was not sure what happened.

It was quite foggy on the road. But fortunately I had good mobile signal, had at least 30% petrol, I was near a town and there was a ‘Exit-sign’ in front of me which helped me to locate myself.

I called Hertz Emergency Road-side assistance which kept me waiting for around 20 mins. I was then told that someone will call me and probably come in an hour or so. I didn’t get a call for long time so was very concerned so as to how long I need to keep the flashers(parking lights) ON and how long my battery/petrol can last.

At around 10:45pm, break-down vehicle came by and the person changed the tire with a temporary one kept in trunk(dickie). The temporary one is real temporary, i.e. its smaller in size compared to others. Hence I had to drive slowly(max 55mph) and need to return the car next day.

I was so relieved when the rescue(!) vehicle came in, coz it was quite lonely though near a town(there was no easy access to the town as highway was guarded by a fence).

Fortunately it was not very cold. Obviously, I couldn’t ask for any other help(apart from calling 911 :) )

You must have figured out that I was all alone during this adventure :P

Now some good part. Next day when I exchanged the car, I am now offered ‘Hyundai Elantra’.

Its also nice car. And I must admit that even with my prejudice towards Korean cars(for unknown reason) – I am impressed with Elantra :)

Its pretty new one.

My initial feeling towards couple of cars I could drove was that Corolla’s steering is very smooth and I liked it. Kia’s(Soul) hard steering was painful for me especially on long travel.

Elantra steering is also harder compared to Corolla, but I find it more stable on highway!

Having praised Hyundai a lot, Mr. Manish – let me tell you that I wont get i20 though :P

Its too much for me ;-)

P.S. I just realized that I had started this as an email to tell about Elantra(Hyundai), but turned out to be more experience telling and also quite lengthy :P

Hence putting on a blog :D

(This calls for a picture)

Lone Cypress as they call it, on 17-mile drive.
Blame me n the mobile camera for poor picture quality :)