My steel horse

Since I was a little girl I wanted a shiny car. And yes, I was pretty sure what kind of shiny car that needed to be. I had no doubts, nobody could talk me into something different and I wasn’t gonna change my mind.

Because I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was 19 (in Holland you can’t get your license until you are 18) I was a little behind on the majority of teens. I didn’t mind because I was still working hard and saving my money for my dream car. But because I had to drive something, my mom and dad got my sister and I a little car to share. She was gonna take it one week and I the other. The weeks that we didn’t have the car we had to take the bus and train to get to school. The car was a good car and i was very grateful that my parents let my sister and i have one, but I wasn’t mine…

Finally after several years of working every weekend, every after schools hour and vacation period,  I had enough money saved up and so I bought my first BMW! I was so happy! So proud and I felt so free! This baby was mine and I did it all myself!!!

The only problem with that car was, (and of COURSE I didn’t admit that while I had it) that it was VERY fuel inefficient. And it would break. A lot! As in maybe, once every month…. Sometimes close to home, sometimes close to school and sometimes right in the middle of where I was going to…

So on a sunny Friday afternoon D. and I were driving home. We had the music on, and we were happy that it was almost weekend. Not that I could do a lot of partying, because I had to work the whole weekend in order to pay for all the fuel and the latest gasket, oil filter or plug for my car… But we were happy anyway and feeling on top of the world driving our own cool car!

In Holland the highways are crowded. And I don’t mean crowded like here, no, its crazy bumper to bumper three/ fourths of the way home. So while we were in the left lane, called the “fast” lane and creeping forward at about 5 miles an hour, smoke started coming out from under the hood….

I whispered to D., “D. this is not good!?!”, and it wasn’t good at all… we had major overheating problems…  Because the highway was so full of cars we couldn’t go to the right lane and park in the grass besides the highway, nobody would let us true anyway…

So after some more panicking we decided to park in the middle part of the highway. And yes we know that this is STRICKTLY FORBIDDEN. But we didn’t know what to do and I wasn’t gonna let my car do any more damage to itself!!! I needed my baby!

So we park the car on the “wrong” side, open the hood and check. I don’t know much about cars but I thought it was some kind of hose that was busted. D. thought the same. While we were standing there lots of cars honked. Lots of “friendly” faces that were laughing AT us. BUT nobody stopped!!! So were standing there besides the highway, car smoking, two desperate looking young girls, and NOBODY stopped…

After some 15 minutes of looking at the hose and getting more and more frustrated by all these people not stopping to help us, finally a truck driver stops at the good (right) side of the road and comes over. He looks in the car and concludes that it is indeed a hose… “Oh well, tough guy we already knew that but thanks for stopping”.

And then things started to click... or so we thought…

While our truckdriver was standing there staring at the hose, a police car stops right behind my parked car…. 

“YOU CAN’T STAND HERE!!!” he yells while exciting his cop car.  I was trying to explain to him that I knew that but that we didn’t have no other choice and I was a little bit surprised that he didn’t ask if we had an accident or something and if somebody was hurt. Nope, he didn’t ask anything at all, he just yelled that we weren’t supposed to be here! The bad thing was; the truck driver didn’t like the police…

And so he starts yelling (to the policeman!!!) that those girls (D. and I) had car trouble and that we could park anywhere we wanted! So while D. and I thought that this couldn’t go any worse, it got worse!

The policeman and the “good Samaritan” are yelling and were just standing there besides the highway and wondering what is going to happen next.

Finally the policeman had enough and tells the truck driver to go away or he is going to get a ticket. After some more cursing, screaming and yelling…!!!  He finally left. In the mean time the police man apparently called some other coppers and they arrive but instead of HELPING US (or even asking us what the matter is) the block off the highway….

Three lanes of highway completely blocked off by police cars…

The policeman yells (again) that we need to go to the other side of the road…

So D. and I hop in the car, drive (really, really slowly, we really felt like royalty too…) to the other side of the road and park it in the grass. And before we even know what is going on, all 4 police cars left…. “What???!!!”

Within no time the traffic is bumper to bumper again, 5 miles an hour and people politely smiling at us… Ohww, what a day!?

Then we realized that one of my housemates who was still at school (in order to get home) needed to use the same highway, so we called him up. He was maybe 5 miles up the road stuck in the same traffic jam. He promised us he would get there as soon as possible and help us out.

What seemed like forever we finally saw his car and he pulled over,  got us hooked up behind his car (which was slightly smaller and less heavy) so the pulling didn’t go as smooth…  But we were on our way again. After some CRAZY driving and towing our car we made it to his house. Changed the troublemaker hose and put in a new hose.  D. and I drove home, with all the windows open and the air at full blast, because we were too afraid the car was going to overheat again…

I dropped D. of at the train station and got home at 9.45 pm. We had left that same day at 1 pm and the drive normally takes us 2 hours….

D. and I have been in a lot of situations like this, but I never sold my car, well not until it was unsafe (as in really, really unsafe) to drive it anymore (I bought a new BMW)… and I never regret one day driving it. I felt on top of the world driving that car. And it made me realize that as long as you believe in yourself, work hard and long for something and you never give up, you will reach the top. Whatever that top might be for you….

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Car on Fire!?!

Some women do know the difference between a car on fire and a car overheated...

YES THEY DO!

On a beautiful sunny afternoon, i drove home from work. I worked at a dairy about 45 minutes from where we were building our own dairy and because i wanted some experience i worked there with the cows as a herdsman (well, herds woman in my case)...

As i said the weather was beautiful, i had my window rolled down because my fancy smansy car didn't have air conditioning and i was puffing (yes, as in smoking) along and enjoying every single bit of the American landscape and my Dutch techno music.

All of a sudden i see this smoke stuff coming out from between my two front seats.... "Hmmm, that is not like it supposed to be..."

Ok, so here we have to do a little track back into the past to understand this whole thing a little bit better.

The car wasn't in it's best shape anymore. Me and my sweet aunt Wendy bought it 4 years before for a good price (as in cheap). It was a decent car and i only needed it for whenever me or my brother would be in the United States, so we could drive around and go and see things or work at places without being depended on somebody all the time. If we were not here, the car would be parked at my aunt's house. When in 2006 we finally moved to the United States, this car was running non stop, and really maybe that was a little to much for it.

Anyway, my sweet friend Johan came over to bring us a little visit, he had been in Wisconsin to study and had some time left and he didn't mind looking at my car. The last couple of weeks i had trouble starting the thing and i thought if Johan looks at it and maybe fixes it up a bit, we can run it another 4 years until i get my BMW!

Johan did "look" at it, he also "fixed" it. By building a little switch in between the two front seats. It was a little choke, so if i started my car it would get a little extra gas so instead of dying on me every time it would start up good. In theory this was a fine solution...

 Now we go back to that sunny afternoon about a mile and a half from home.

I see all this smoke and i think, "This is not good!" I toss my cigarette out of the window (Yes, very bad behavior i know but i was in  little bit of a pickle here), turn the music down and STARE at the smoke! "This is not good at all!" I stop the car grab my bag, my car papers, my drivers licence (Dutch drivers license....) And throw everything outside!

Of course we live in RURAL Indiana so there are not so many houses and while I'm standing besides my car i call our crop farmer. "Hi, euhhmm, i think my car is on fire...". "Oh,  what does it do?" "Well there is smoke coming out." "You sure it is on fire???" "Well, yes I'm pretty sure...." Our crop farmer did not really believe me. He kept telling me that it was just overheating and that i should stay calm. I was besides the point of staying calm so i pretty much yelled at him (so much for being nice to somebody who is supposedly coming to save you) to come get me AND bring a fire extinguisher!

Because i needed to do something, i run over to the "closest" house to see if they had any water, and maybe a bucket so i could dump some of that water in my car. And in the meantime i was speed dialing my mom, dad and brother and of course NOBODY would answer the phone (happens all the time when your really, really need somebody quick)! What i didn't know was that they were busy in the yard and didn't hear the phone...

So i called the crop farmers mother instead. She said she was watching the grand kids but would come over with a fire extinguisher and see if she could help...

I RUN back to my car WITHOUT any water. Of course my luck to find a house with NO WATER OR A BUCKET what so ever on the outside of the house.... Actually maybe it did have a hydrant or such but i was just to much in 'panic mode' to see, let alone find it! When i got back to my car, the car was filled with black smoke. You could not see true one window and out the other one. The black smoke was everywhere.

The crop farmer arrives, jumps out of his car and yells at me (while laughing!) "JEHZZZ Leo, your car REALLY is on fire!?!" "Yep, i told you so....."

And no, the little itty bitty fire extinguisher that he brought didn't do the trick, nor did the little bigger fire extinguisher that his mom brought. She also brought the kids, who thought this was AWESOME and she flagged down my mom, brother and dad from the garden and took them too.

We called 911...

The police, the fire department, the sheriff  and the ambulance came out. But we just let it burn, because by the time they arrived all four tires had popped, and there was just not much left anymore of my decent ugly brown car.

A week later my sweet friend John got me his red cabriolet for me to use while i was looking for a new car. It was a spunky little car and i had lot's of fun driving it! What was even more fun was that not much later i spotted my little red BMW. I had told everybody, first the cows and then the car, but well.... Let's just say there was a change of plans!

We never found out if it was the little choke thingy that did it, but something went wrong...
For Sure...

I did take pictures with my old Dutch phone, but i can't get them onto a computer. They really are 'awesome' pics though! And next time i ever have to call our crop farmer and tell him my car is on fire, i really think he's gonna bring the biggest fire extinguisher he's got...


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Crazy Americans! Now where is it that you left your keys?

OK, so this was in the local newspaper (or something really close to this) about a month after we immigrated here from The Netherlands.

“The Bluffton Sheriff’s department is asking all residents to take their keys out of the car and or close car windows while shopping at the local grocery store (Yes, this would be your local Walmart).”

And I just could NOT stop laughing, I really almost peed my pants while running over to mom and dad to show them this little article on page 4 of the local newspaper!

We really had a hard time believing what we just read so we read it again, and again...

We had already noticed a HUGE difference in “what people do” here, and with here I mean, local Indiana, in the middle of nowhere, county living, RURAL AREA, Indiana. They sure had different methods of leaving their keys somewhere else than what we were used to coming from the Netherlands.

In Holland you need to lock EVERYTHING. This includes: Cars; first of all, lock them with CLOSED windows! Second, hide your CD player, phone, I-pad, kids toys! And do not leave laptops or other important devices in your car because your car will be broken into or (worse) just be plain GONE! Bicycles; have at least two locks, and maybe an extra chain that you can put around your bike and wrap it around a lantern post. You probably will lose your bike anyway to some drunk person who couldn’t find his or her bike and just took yours. Good thing we have HUNDREDS of bikes in Holland… Your wallet; have a big HEAVY chain on it, chained to your jeans otherwise somebody else WILL TAKE IT!

Especially walking in a big city like Amsterdam it would be even smarter to keep your wallet close to your body under lot’s and lot’s of layers of clothes. It WILL be gone before you have even noticed it! Your tractor; yes, in these days even tractors are not safe anymore, they will take them and run them into a big semi and ship them off to different parts of Europe. And finally your house, never ever leave your house unlocked, not even for five minutes to borrow a cup of sugar at your sweet little old lady (that your barely know) neighbor! Your house will be empty by the time you drank her tea and eat the old stale cookies and got back!

Soooo now you know how it works in Holland. Well, this is how it worked in rural Indiana. And maybe you can understand our confusion. And my big “WHY?” Every time I would see something like a running or unlocked car.

People leave their cars running in the winter while they are shopping. “Why???” Because otherwise the car will be cold by the time they get back. People leave their cars running in the summer while they are shopping. “Why???” Because otherwise the car will be hot by the time they get back. To me this sounds like “LAZY” all over, but maybe I’m just looking at it wrong and should I look at it as “SMART”?!? But what if somebody would see you car and drive off with it...

People leave their cars windows down in the summer while they are shopping. “Why???” Because (normally these are the crappier/older cars) they have NO air condition and otherwise the car will get hot while they are shopping… I do have to admit having a older BMW with no air conditioner it was pretty tempting to leave the windows down… And then my CD collection of Matchbox Twenty kicked in and I walked back to my car after walking 10 steps away from it and closed the windows… What if somebody would take my Rob Thomas…

People leave their cars unlocked while shopping. “Why???” I have no idea…. Maybe because it is always a hassle to find your car keys when you are pushing a full cart…? That was the only reason I could think off…. Well... It is pretty annoying to dig out your keys while your cart strolls off into a empty neighboring car that DOES have the engine running…

People have their houses unlocked while they are going on a vacation for THREE WEEKS?!? “Why???” Because they forgot to lock it and they took their keys with them? Maybe? I really didn’t get this one but after a couple of nights laying awake pondering this I came to the conclusion that maybe grandma didn’t have a spare key…

So yes, crazy American’s. Right?!?

To be honest I am a bit torn on this one. One side of me says, “Who is the crazy now?” The Dutchies because they have come too such a sad society they cannot trust anybody anymore and have to lock everything everywhere…  And the other side of me says; The “Crazy Americans”, who just leave everything out in the open and don’t lock a thing, anywhere, because they trust each other to leave the stuff that is yours, yours and the stuff that is mine, mine?!?

I kinda like the idea of not having to lock up your belongings all the time and that you have enough faith in your fellow earthlings that they don’t steal your stuff all the time….

But… I still lock my car…. And our house…. And I still hide my wallet in a special compartment in my handbag…

Crazy me?


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If you missed the first "Crazy Americans" please check out Crazy Americans & Public Restrooms !