Should've seen it coming

So I was stupid (surprise surprise) and messed up my rental car reservation. I flew in to Salt Lake on Sunday night, and mistakenly made my reservation starting Monday night (Note: if you make car rental reservations over Priceline, make sure you've got the right date and times, because the independent rental company can't modify the reservation once your bid is accepted). No one wanted to take me back to the airport on Monday (can't blame them), so I took buses and TRAX to get up there.

Once there, I went to the counter and got everything squared away. I asked the guy what car I'd be driving and he said "Oh probably something like a Ford Focus or Chevy Aveo." Pretty lame picks if you ask me but who cares, it's just to get around, right? Well I walk out to the guy with all the keys, and he hands me a pair that fit a Mitsubishi. The spot he told me to go to (F22) had a minivan in it, so that couldn't be right, but E22 had an Eclipse parked in it. Sure enough, my keys were to the Eclipse. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to drive this sporty little car. I'd always thought Eclipses looked cool, and this one looked to be only a couple years old.

It's a fun little car I guess. There's only like 3 inches of leg room in the back seat, so I would never buy one, but for rental purposes it's fine. I've been a little unimpressed with its power. You'd think a small sporty car like that would have some all right acceleration, but not really. My Passatt has a lot more power than this Eclipse. Smoother ride and less exterior noise, as well. The interior looks pretty, though. The exterior, too. It's all show, I've decided.

This, of course, didn't prevent me from driving fast on the freeway. There's something about being in a sporty little car that compelled me to go fast and weave in and out of traffic. Now I understand why they do that. (I also want to point out that Utah drivers, at least on the freeway, are more courteous when it comes to letting you pass than California drivers. Almost everyone I caught up with in the fast lane would move over to let me pass. In California? Yeah, right.)

My fun ended when I shot past a highway patrolman in a big suburban. As I shot past, I noticed that it was probably a cop, so I slowed down, but then I had to speed up again to get around someone for my exit. Busted. Got pulled over...I was probably doing 85-90. Fortunately I think the cop bought my story about being from out of state and there just visiting, so he wrote me up for going only 9 mph over the speed limit (which prevents the ticket from going on my record). Nice enough guy, I suppose. I should've told him I just wasn't used to the speedometer, which doesn't even have a "90" mph indicator. It would've only been half-true, anyway.

Was this story very interesting or exciting or humorous? Not really. But hey, I'm going to pay $82 bucks for it, so gimme a break.