Through the Americas 5: Tow-Away Bump

The employee explained that their agents are entitled, and also have the means, to open any kind of door.

But my karma was still in its negative phase. I found out the car had a large bump on the front wing. The damaged part had been carefully encircled with chalk. I was explained that the chalk proved the car had been damaged before the towing. Of course they had no photo. The employees showed no interest in the fact that the car had been parked at the edge of the street and that nobody could have bruised it from the pavement. It also didn't seem possible to the staff, that the employee could have drawn the circle after having hit the car during the tow-away. And then – did I have any proof for my insolent statement?

Well, I could wait for the return of the corpulent employee, but I'd just lose more time. It wasn't very probable she would admit to her fault. So I'll probably lose the 250 $ of the deposit I had paid when taking the car.

to be continued

text & photo: Janin Klemenčič

The tow-away service

our Pontiac in the Tow away garage

The doorman in the hostel had a lot of fun telling me about a corpulent black lady from the »Tow away service« who, just a while earlier, had towed the car away because it had been parked at the wrong place. I didn't have as much fun as he did; I swore like a trooper as I walked, in the pouring rain, to the parking lot of the tow-away service. Fortunately, it wasn’t too far, just about two kilometers from the hostel.

The employee was unyielding. She agreed with all my arguments, but the tariff was clear: 150 $! Reluctantly, I paid and the doorman led me to the covered parking lot where I found our beautiful dark-red Pontiac. Even though the pane had an inscription saying that the car was protected against breaking in, the door was unlocked and a thick rope was fastened to the steering wheel and clawed with the door; that should prevent the wheels to move during the tow-away. American tow-away vehicles are, in fact, very small trucks, and they only have space for two wheels of any given towed-away vehicle.

to be continued

text & photo: Janin Klemenčič

Drive away 3: The NY Suburb

In our case, it was a NY family who wanted to send the car to their son, living in Key West, Florida, about 300 kilometers south of Miami. Not bad. We’ll take it!

The family lives in a New York suburb, in a neighborhood of villas with big gardens and swimming pools. New York isn't all that small, and it took us several hours to arrive there: by bus (three of them), then by subway, then by train.

The family was nice, but offered us just a glass of water. We got a wonderful Pontiac Firebird and five days to hand it over in Florida.

After the initial problems with automatic gears and trying to find the way through the incredible maze of highways around New York (only New Yorkers understand what most of the road signs mean), we arrived to our youth hostel, in downtown Manhattan. The parking places are awfully expensive, so I drove the car to the side of a wide six-lane street where there were already many cars parked. Surely, there wouldn’t be any problems until the following day, I thought.

Wrong! The next morning it was raining and the car was nowhere to be found.

to be continued

text & photo: Janin Klemenčič