This past few months I have accompanied my husband when he had to travel a far distance for work. He is able to rent a vehicle instead of driving our own. Over the last few years he has brought home a number of makes and models.
In October we went to Meadow Lake in a brand new 2019 Toyota Camry. Nice leather interior, heated seats, GPS and alarms when you got too close to the shoulder strips. Now that was my favorite feature in that car. I am a very nervous passenger and I am constantly telling him he is too close, watch out for this and that, you are going too fast, too slow, etc. Well with this feature I did not have to say a word, it did it for me. We stopped for coffee at Tim Horton’s in North Battleford and I still had a sheepish grin on my face. Three hours later upon reaching our destination he commented how nice the drive up was. The fall beauty of the boreal forest, spotting a few deer on the side of the road but not a moose in sight. Or perhaps he was hinting no comments from me.
A couple of weeks later off to Pierceland. I asked him, “what are we driving in this time?” He looked like a kid in the candy store with the biggest grin on his face. “You will just have to see.” Parked on the driveway was a 2019 Jeep Wrangler. He said he had never driven one so was a great opportunity to try one out. He assured me that our later departure and size would be beneficial if we happen to come across any wild life. We were expected to arrive after dark to our destination. The Tim Horton’s coffee stop in North Battleford was a bit of a different reaction to the ride. Comfort for the passenger was not optimal and we were still trying to figure out some of the basic features of the vehicle. As it was a nice day we both could not figure out how to open the windows. I must of felt every inch of the side panel for the next three hours looking for anything that would resemble a gadget to open any window. I inspected the roof area and determined that the panels came off, but I didn’t need that much fresh air.
On the ride back we were discussing the pros and cons of the vehicle and we both came to the same conclusion that this was not the ride for us for a variety of reasons. When we pulled into Enterprise I waited in the car and Orest went inside to return the vehicle and sign off the paper work. The agent came to inspect the Jeep and just out of curiosity I asked him if the windows open. Pointing to the panel just below stereo system was the window sliding latch. He apologized for not showing us some of the features prior to the rental but I assured him it was alright, I didn’t need to open the windows and no we did not do any off roading.
