#and I learned manual in a city of people who drive like maniacs

[theredquilt]

I HAVE BEEN HAVING DRIVING 🚗🧑‍🏫 LESSONS 😖🤮 AND JUST DID THE DRIVING TEST 😦😱😰 AND PASSED! 🎉🎊

[carnalapples]

wip whenever

Thank you @theluckywizard for the tag!! I have more from this Stardew Valley fic this week, I actually have a plot lined out now :))

Her eyes flick up to his lazily as he enters the shop, bells jingling over his head.

There’s not much room for them to avoid each other if they wanted to. She twists the cord of the phone Pierre keeps behind the desk; the man watches this action unhappily, but the farmer doesn’t stop. She hums lowly, considering something, a slow release of air.

“So you’re out in Murphy?” she finally asks.

“That’s 2 hours from here,” Pierre offers. The farmer takes this in, stone-faced.

“And the transmission—” She pauses, then seems to deflate. “It’s manual." She purses her lips, then nods. Nods again. “All right. Well, thank you.”

She hangs up without looking and sighs. “Thanks for letting me use the phone.”

“Anything for my most loyal customer,” Pierre says with a smile. “No luck, huh?”

“That was the last listing I could afford that wasn’t too far away,” she says mournfully.

“I know how to drive stick,” Alex says. He doesn’t quite realize it until the words are hanging in the air between them. She glances back, startled.

She narrows her eyes. “How?”

“Because we used to have a stick shift,” he says slowly. “What, you too good for it?”

“Something like that."

“The Mayor has a manual transmission, too,” Pierre adds, trying and failing to appear uninterested in the turns of the conversation.

She cuts a glance back to Alex. “You or Lewis, huh?”

“Me or Lewis,” he agrees. As if he’ll be much help anyway. Alex only drives on the dirt roads that lead to the specialist’s office over in Grampleton. She’s from the city, she probably drives like a maniac.

“All right. Can you come with me to get it?”

Alex meets her at Robin’s place at five in the morning on Saturday. Sure, he gets up early, but not this early. She’s sitting on the steps of the front porch, pushing the heels of her hands into her eyes.

“Did you even sleep?” he asks.

“It’s some old man,” she starts. “Some old man who wants me to come by eight. Says he has an appointment to keep. Fuck this, man,” she sighs, finally letting her hands drop against her knees and revealing her shadowed eyes.

“Whoa, you look awful,” he says, because he hasn’t learned anything. She narrows her eyes.

Robin comes out of the house, letting the screen door slam behind her. She’s got two mugs of coffee. “Oh, Alex! You’re here already.”

“Already? He’s late," the farmer adds.

“You want coffee, honey? Here, take it.”

“No thank you, ma’am.” The farmer’s looking at him sideways. He tries to fight a blush. Whenever he talks to Robin, he feels like a kid again, remembers the days spent here with Sebastian, drawing in the front room. Gran called it the drawing room, and he always thought that was why.

“Ma’am,” she laughs, shaking her head as she passes one mug to the farmer and takes a big sip out of the other. “You used to be this big!” She pulls her free hand down to her thigh. She looks at him again, really looks, in that way that immediately makes Alex know she’s thinking about his mother. How alive she was back then, and how dead she is now.

“I bet you had the chubbiest little cheeks,” the farmer pipes up, sickeningly sweet. She reaches out a hand as if to pinch him. He snorts, swallowing down the lump in his throat. She gets up off the porch, and the wood groans beneath her.

“Need to fix that,” Robin mutters. “Alright, don’t let him hustle you. If you think that car’s not worth the money, either talk him down or get out of there.” She presses the keys into the farmer’s hand. "I hate to say it, but with Alex there, he’ll probably think twice about it."

“I guess it is good I’m taking you,” the farmer mumbles.

“Because being able to drive the damn thing back wasn’t enough?”

“You guys really aren’t morning people, huh?” Robin claps her hands together, and they both flinch. “Have fun.”

//

Tagging @rowanisawriter, @midmorninggrey, and @lasatfat if you'd like to share anything this week!

[robertkstone]

Celebrity Drive: Actor Steve Guttenberg

Quick Stats: Steve Guttenberg, actor, HBO’s Ballers Daily Driver: 2015 Ford Mustang (Steve’s rating: 10 on a scale of 1 to 10) Other cars: see below Favorite road trip: Los Angeles to Alta, Utah Car he learned to drive in: 1973 Chrysler New Yorker First car bought: 1970 Toyota

When you look at his two very different daily drivers, actor Steve Guttenberg has two principals that guide his own philosophy on life—support your own neighborhood, and don’t let labels dictate your self worth.

His 2015 Ford Mustang convertible, which is kept on the West Coast, was a conscious decision to support U.S. automakers. “I really wanted to buy American,” he says. “Then I thought about my favorite car. Of course the dream car was the Mustang and it was the 50th year, and I said, ‘Got to have it.’ It’s all-American, and today I think we need to focus on that a little bit right now. Not that I’m an isolationist—I’m not. But sometimes you have to celebrate your neighborhood, and the United States is my neighborhood.

“I just really wanted that 50th year, and I’ve always been a fan of the ‘65 and the ‘64. I wanted to get something that had an everyday reliability while having some style and some classic history, and the Mustang fit the bill.”

Photo: Jeff Daly

Guttenberg’s first American car was Chrysler New Yorker, but this is still his first Mustang. “It drives so well, has such a sleek look,” he says. “They really upped their game, and I think it’s in such great shape right now. I like the American hood. It’s got a big front, a big chest and when you drive it, you’re looking over the car to the road and I think it gives you a perspective that you’re in an American vehicle. The Europeans, the Germans—you don’t get that feeling while driving it that you’re in something that has national pride. I’d say maybe something patriotic about it.”

There isn’t anything Guttenberg dislikes about the Mustang. “It has a really cool color, it’s not called ‘Army green,’ but it’s a cross between gray and green,” he says. “I love it. It’s just such a great car, and when you have the top down, it just is such a dream. The convertible top works so well. They’ve designed it so perfectly. Easy on, easy off.”

Guttenberg’s new Kia Sorrento was also a purchase he didn’t take lightly. This purchase was about supporting the best product and not about brands or needing a certain badge one can afford to drive in life.

2017 Kia Sorrento

Rating: 8.5

Guttenberg wanted an SUV and test drove all the high-end ones, but this Kia stood out as the clear winner. “I love the Kia company. I just got it,” he says. “I really think that Kia and Hyundai have become the new standard in foreign economical cars. I was told that the designer from Audi was hired by Kia and Hyundai, and they just stepped it up to an incredible level.” (Editor’s note: He’s talking about Peter Schreyer)

He feels the handling on it is terrific, as are many other things. “The safety is five-star, the warranty of course is 10 years, 100,000 miles,” he says. “The interior is stupendous, much better than the SUVs that I test drove. Some of the really big names disappointed me.”

Guttenberg rates the Kia 8.5 out of 10. “Only not a 10 because the money but because of what it costs to up the game,” he says. “If it cost more, it would have been a 10. It could definitely compete with any of the big guys. It’s funny, we were driving the other day next to a German SUV, and our car looked exactly same and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty funny.”

He says that after test driving high-end SUVs, he felt some of the companies were starting to rest on their laurels. “Sometimes when you’re very successful, you start to slack back because you don’t need to practice seven days a week, you take three days off because you’re the best in the world,” Guttenberg says.

Guttenberg noticed the leather wasn’t really leather in some SUVs. “They can up the price and still have the symbol on the front or the back, which, if that makes you go, you’ve got to wear a symbol on your jacket so you can walk into somewhere and say, ‘Hey, I’m in your club,'” he says. “That’s what a lot of people need. I don’t need that.”

Guttenberg liked an SUV by Acura, which came close in his mind. But in the end, the KIA was the best one. “I don’t need two pounds of bologna in a one-pound bag,” he says. “I need an SUV to get me places and drive great, and I’ve got to feel good about it. I don’t wear my diamond tennis bracelet all the time. Sometimes I just want my little string bracelet that my niece made me. And it’s the same thing. It looks great, feels great, and it gives me the same sort of high when I look at it. In a car, I need to feel really good about what I’m driving.”

He didn’t have any snobbish notions of needing a certain badge to show off. “Snob is the first step of going to the basement. I don’t want to go to the basemement,” he says. “Range, Land [Rover], Cadillac, I drove them all. And they’re all fine cars, I just found Kia to be the top of the game. They just are. They try harder, they’re smarter. They’ve got no blind spots, it drives great. If you need that ‘Members Only’ label on your car, then, that’s what you need. If you’re confident, you like who you are, then you don’t need that label. You know who you are.”

This purchase wasn’t a money issue either for him. “I’m penurious because I think it’s responsible to be smart about money. But, luckily we can buy any car we want,” he says.

Going to a car show also helped him with ideas on what cars to try. “What happened was, we live in New York, and we went to the Javits Center to the auto show,” he says. “I looked at everything there. I really got a good idea, and then I went and test drove everything. I like to go to car shows. I go to dog shows. When I buy something I always go where the best is and then get an idea. I go to jewelry shows. I love to go to home and garden shows. I go to boat shows. The great thing is, in one building you see everything.”

Although New York City might not be the best place for driving an SUV at times, Guttenberg is a former cabbie. “Best place to learn how to drive is New York City,” he says. “You learn either you burn out and you become a raving maniac in New York City, or you learn patience, tolerance, and waiting for your moment.”

Guttenberg gets Yoda-esque on driving in New York, quoting John Wooden: “Don’t hurry, but be quick.” He says that when he’s in New York, he doesn’t hurry, and he is quick. “So when I’m driving and I see an opening, I take it right away,” he says. “Any car is good in New York City streets. You’ve just got to be a good driver, and you’ve got to be patiently aggressive.”

Car he learned to drive in

Guttenberg learned to drive in his dad’s 1973 Chrysler New Yorker. Although he grew up in North Massapequa on New York’s Long Island, his parents taught him to drive mostly in Syosset in an industrial park. His dad took him there on Sundays.

“My dad’s a U.S. Army ranger, so everything was by the book,” he says. “He taught me about the speed limit, he taught me about a full stop, taught me how to parallel park correctly, taught me how to make three point turns, and he taught me not to rush. When I did something wrong, in my opinion, he was hard to deal with, but he wasn’t. When I did the wrong thing, he yelled at me and told me to do the right thing. It was easy.”

His dad gave him the New Yorker to drive senior year in high school, where the car was just a utilitarian vehicle to get to class. “In 1976 nothing really happened in cars,” he says. “Only for the cool guys who were shaving and had full beards and looked like they were 35 in their senior year high school did anything happen in any car. Nothing happened in my car. And I think that’s really healthy. I tried my best to have something happen in the car, but nothing ever happened, and I’m really glad.”

Guttenberg’s car was named Murray, and one eventful thing did happen in the car. “I’ll never forget, one time we went to Farrell’s ice scream parlor where I later on became a waiter, and a friend of mine threw up in it,” he recounts. “After we went to the ice cream parlor, he got in the car, and he threw up all over the car. And he was pretty belligerent about it. He got out and when he went into his house, I took out all the floor mats where he threw up and washed them out in his pool as retribution.”

When Guttenberg went to college, his dad sold the New Yorker to a business partner’s son, who that winter ended up totaling the car.

First car bought

Three days after graduating high school, in June of 1976, Guttenberg moved to California to become an actor. He bought a used, manual 1970 Toyota for $1,500, and having only driven an automatic, Guttenberg taught himself from a book borrowed from the library.

“My godfather gave me a car for a year to drive, and about six months later I bought the Toyota,” he says. “I thought it was unfair for me to keep driving it. It was a really odd car, not a Nova but a weird name starting with a ‘P.’ But I gave it back, and I got this Toyota, which was a great car.”

Guttenberg had money for the Toyota from being a waiter at a California ice cream shop. He relied on the Toyota to get get him to auditions.

“That car. I was just remembering yesterday how many times I ran out of gas on the 405 freeway,” he says. “Young actor, trying to save my pennies and not fill-up until I had to fill-up, and several times I ran out of gas with that sucker and was walking on the 405 toward an exit looking for help.”

When he quit Hollywood a year later to go back to college at Albany State University, Guttenberg gave it to his little sister. “I was really successful my first year, but I just couldn’t live with the Hollywood culture, and I didn’t make any friendships,” he says. “I just wanted to quit, so I did.”

Later, in the height of the 1980s during his Police Academy years, Guttenberg also had two very different drivers—a Toyota Corolla and a Ferrari 308, though the Ferrari didn’t get out onto the streets much. It was his splurge car. “I made more movies than anybody else in the ’80s,” he says. “The Ferrari 308—I just liked it. I had the Ferrari in the garage.”

Favorite road trip

“My favorite road trip was with my friend Larry Richman in his Porsche 928 from Los Angeles to Alta, Utah,” Guttenberg says.

The two drove 140 mph for 500 miles. “Culminating in a 20-mile race with a highway patrolman,” Guttenberg says. “The patrolman lost and didn’t ticket us. We took him to dinner, and he gave us a case of Stella Belgium beer.”

The last episode this season for HBO’s Ballers ends Sunday Sept. 24.

READ MORE CELEBRITY DRIVES HERE:

Doobie Brothers Guitarist Patrick Simmons

Singer Chris Daughtry of Daughtry 

Geoff Downes, Keyboardist for Yes, Asia, Buggles

Actor and World Celebrity David Hasselhoff

Drummer John Densmore of The Doors

The post Celebrity Drive: Actor Steve Guttenberg appeared first on Motor Trend.

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[throwadart]

Italy : Day 3

Today was very special. Our itinerary included visiting my great-grandparent’s hometown in Sonego just an hour north of Venice and then going on to explore the Dolomite mountains even farther north.

The toughest challenge was going to be driving. Both of the times my parents have been to Sonego, they’ve hired a driver/interpreter. This time we were going to try it on our own. The people in Italy - or at least in Venice so far - drive like maniacs. They speed like demons, ride your tail and cut you off like it’s their job. All of the speed limit signs are in kilometers, so it says 110 on the highways, but I’m pretty sure a lot of them are driving 110 mph.

We picked up the rental around 8:30am - a cute little Fiat. The gear shifting was really strange and felt like it drove similar to a manual. There is no “Park” - there is neutral with a parking break. And the car doesn’t idle with movement if you take your foot off the break, it either stay still or rolls back. So different. After I got a handle on that, it was time to set out with my co-pilot. Traffic wasn’t that bad, actually, especially if you stayed in the slow lane and minded your own business.

We traveled on the toll road about an hour to a town called Vittorio Veneto. It was the town you exited on to make your way up the hillside to Sonego. We had been in search for some peanut butter at a market we went to the day before with no luck, so we stopped at a Super Mercato and grabbed one of the only ones on the shelf. Guess it’s just not a thing here like it is back home. Jeff would never survive. The produce looked so fresh, but all of the packaged goods were brands I’ve never heard of. We grabbed a few other things for a picnic later and headed to Sonego.

When I pictured my great-grandparent’s town, I’ve often thought of dirt roads and a few small buildings. Afterall, they originally left in search for a better life in the US. I was quite surprised as we climbed up the hillside to the foot of the mountains, through town after town of semi-functioning communities. All of the buildings were so old, but standing sturdier than ever. We parked on a little side street that we could barely fit through and walked through the streets to locate their homes.

We first found Noni’s (my great-grandma) home. Boarded up windows and non-functioning doors, and what used to have a for sale sign on there did not anymore. It was so neat to see it in person. I have many memories of Noni, going over to her house (which I dreaded) and walking through her backyard garden of vegetables and flowers. She wasn’t a very affectionate great-grandma and we always sat on plastic coverings for her furniture, never allowed to watch TV and careful not to laugh too much. Afterall, “you laugh, you cry” is what she always said. I wondered if it was her tough upbringing in Sonego that made her like that. How could this beautiful surrounding be so harsh?

Next we found Nono’s (my great-grandpa) home. His place seemed much more updated than Noni’s. Maybe someone was living it in? They lived right around the corner from each other - kind of strange that they ended up together. I never met him, I think he died right after my brother was born, but I hear he was a wonderful man. He first left Italy for America, coming through Ellis Island, and later sent for his wife, who (illegally) immigrated through Canada.

We kept strolling through the streets looking for a man that my mom had met before, Leno. He spoke English and Italian and knew exactly who our family was and how everyone was related. He even had a picture of my grandpa and his parents in his house. But unfortunately when we found his house he did not answer the door.

We made our way to the bakery next, where my mom had met a few ladies that knew of our family. We learned Bruna had passed, but the other, Carla, recognized my mom right away. She spoke very little English, so we tried to communicate as best as we could. She doesn’t remember our family because she is much younger, but loved hearing the stories. She walked with us over to Leno’s house to try and find him, but no luck with her either.

It was a bummer not to see Leno and the family picture, but at least I got to see the town where they grew up before coming to America, eventually landing in Detroit. Kind of ironic to learn that they left such a beautiful area at the foot of the mountains in search of a better life, when here Jeff & I left Detroit and moved into the mountains. Like Jeff said, everyone’s in search of something.

After Sonego, we decided to take a roadtrip to the Dolomites. It was only an hour and a half farther north, so we thought we’d go as far as we had the energy for. The first stop was Belluno for lunch.

We did a quick drive through the main part of town and then found a nice bench perched up on a hill for our picnic. Peanut butter and jellies on a baguette with some fruit with views of the Piave River running through town.

Belluno is surprisingly populated town nestled in a valley of the Dolomites. With cobblestone streets and gorgeous views for miles, it’s no wonder people stay here. It’s also home to two Pope’s and some great history, as well. But it was time to make our way up the mountains.

We kept on trekking, although all of the twists and turns up were making me sleepy, so we had to stop to rest. Great town we picked, too, Valle di Cadore. We pulled into a little parking lot and as I turned off the car we looked up and saw this stunning view. I did a few jumping jacks to get some blood flowing and we kept on north.

Drove next to a few bikers that were getting their workout in within beautiful scenery. Couldn’t blame them. As we continued to climb in altitude, the towns started looking more chalet-like.

Twists and turns started revealing more of the mountains. We passed by Antelao, the second highest of the Dolomites, at 10,706 feet. Chump change, when I’m used to seeing 14,000 footers in Colorado.

We finished in a town called Cortina d'Ampezzo. Turns out this city is known for it’s climbing and winter skiing, swelling to over 40,000 people during peak season. It was featured in many movies, including Cliffhanger and James Bond’s For Your Eyes Only. It was also home to the 1956 Winter Olympics, and we even found one of the remaining ski jumps.

We were only an hour from the Austrian border, but it was time to turn around and head back with our two our drive home.

We turned the rental car in around 6:00pm after filling it up at the gas station. That in and of itself was a trip. First we missed the gas station and had to go all the way onto the island and turn around to come back. But once we pulled in, we found that they apparently still do service pumping...for $.30 more per gallon! We opted for the self-serve lane, but that didn’t work as planned either. So used to pre-paying with a credit card, the pumps here do not come equipped with a card reader. Instead, you pump first, then go over to the service lane to have the guy run your credit card after you tell him the amount you pumped. Talk about the honor system. He came over to my pump as he could clearly see I was struggling and asked if we were from America. Yes, I said embarrassingly. Then he asked me if I was Trump or Obama. I happily told him Obama, thinking that might score me some points, which did make him smile.

We dropped our book bags and groceries at the house and then set out for a dinner near home. This cute place I wanted to try ended up having a two night reservation list, so we grabbed some pasta across the bridge next door instead.

Wanting to go back to St. Mark’s Basilica, we realized we would likely be there the next day, so we decided to check out another area called the Jewish Ghetto instead. Unfortunately, it was pretty much closed up for the night by the time we made it over there, but the evening made for some great scenery and people watching.

The next day was more laid back, with a visit to neighboring islands Murano and Burano!