Lessons from an Audi.

This past weekend I had the honor of traveling to the Pacific Northwest to be a groomsman for my friend Michael and his beautiful wife Nicole. I had never been to the PNW before, so I had no idea the beauty of it.  It was a wonderful weekend wedding celebrated with just as wonderful people.  

But that's not what this post about.  This is about the rental car that I had a love/hate relationship with.  

I ordered a "Premium Elite" SUV.  When I got there, I chose an Audi Q5 as seen here.  

When I got it I was already running on about 6 hours of sleep, and had just traveled by car and plane for over 13 hours.  So I'm pretty beat.  Took me a good minute to figure out all I had to do was push the button to start it.  And then another minute to figure out I needed to push the brake to turn on the engine.  There was also no setting up the gigantic touchscreen apple car play.  For the most part though, I was able to get in and drive a sweet car.  That's what I wanted to do, after all.  That's why I got it instead of a boring Ford Fiesta or something like that. 

After I hit up Emerald City Discs and got a round in at Ralph Williamson Memorial Disc Golf Course, I started to make my way to I-5 North around 3:30pm.  And from that point on, I sat in traffic for the better part of 90 minutes.  Stop and go or about 20-25mph.  IT. WAS. AWFUL.  I was actually beginning to get upset with the amount of ROUTINE traffic there was.  I don't know how one could put up with that all the time.  When I finally got out of the traffic and could bring my Audi up to speed, I learned fairly quickly that the car didn't allow to me to lane change without signaling.  It wasn't long after that, that I learned it also didn't want me "using the road" going around corners either.  However, it did have a nice cruise feature that sensed the car in front of you going slow and backed off.  On the flip, it really didn't tell you it slowed down either so you drive behind the slow guy for a few minutes.  

But overall, it was an absolute joy to drive.  I learned the following day it has a "traffic assist" option that would have been helpful the day prior.  And I also figured out how to turn off the lane switch protection on the way back to the airport when I accidentally hit the button on the turn signal lever.  Go figure.  I hooked up Apple Carplay and man is that nice.  By the end of the trip I was looking up the list price on one.  

So what's the problem here?  What did I learn from this car on my way back to the Seattle airport early Sunday morning?  The car took my freedoms away in the name of safety.  I no longer had the freedom to switch lanes without signaling, turn a tight corner on a back road, or get super close to an object without it beeping me to death.  Is this a bad thing?  Nope.  Not at all.  But only because I could turn most of those features off.  

Enter the Freedom Mobile.  Aka, my Ram 1500.  There is no backup camera, there is no lane assist thing, there are no side sensors, no auto speed cruise, no clock that stays on when the radio is off, and you have the ability to run the whole passenger side of the truck up against at gate at Aschombes on mothers day of 2017 with the only beeping coming from my mouth.   So that's cool, right?  Heck yeah it is.  I drive this truck.  My safety in this vehicle is up to me. I took a test almost 25 years ago that I passed and it proves that I'm a good driver FOR LIFE!  Ain't that swell!  

Before this gets too long and I get to far in the weeds (but not while driving an Audi Q5), this scenario made me think about all the freedoms we have taken away for the sake of safety.  Some of them are great.  Some of them are not.  I'm glad people aren't allowed to drive with a BAC over the legal limit.  I'm glad people aren't allowed to drive reckless on an open public road.  Things of that nature.  

I don't think we've ever truly been free in the USA.  So anyone that tells you they love freedom and wants this to be a free country, it will NEVER be a truly free country.  And that's ok for the most part.  I love the freedom in the truck that felt like a gigantic sloth on Sunday night.  I love that the fact that the safety of my passengers is up to me.  I love that my safety and the safety of other drives is up to me.  Because as soon as I get behind the wheel of that vehicle, I must be confident that I can keep myself and everyone else safe from any harm that may come.  This should be EVERY DRIVERS RESPONSIBILITY regardless of what laws there may be.  

Alright...enough already.  This did not really have the vibe I was going for.  This probably would have made a better podcast.  I'm a much better storyteller that way.  But you know what....this writing is just an exercise for me.  It doesn't always have to be good, it just has to be something.  And as long as it's something, you're still growing.  That last bit might be the best part of the blog!