Two and a half years ago, I bought my first car. I had to decide between getting a newer “economy” car that may have only been a couple years old, or getting five to six year old luxury car.
Fortunately, luxury won out. For less than I could have bought a new bare-bones Kia Rio, or a slightly used Camry, I got a fully loaded six-year-old turbocharged V6-powered Saab.
The reason I make this comparison is that for the same price as a new car with nothing luxury about it, you can get a very nice older car.
For example, what you pay for a new Kia Rio, (about $13,000) that does not even have air conditioning or power locks, you can get an 80,000 mile 2003 Mercedes-Benz E320, with heated leather seats, dual-zone climate control and a lot more.
Furthermore, despite being older, these higher-end options will more than likely last longer than a newer “cheaper” car.
Although, you have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages. With an older luxury car, you have to take into consideration repair costs if they need servicing, and the fact that they have no warranty. Also, an older Mercedes, Saab, BMW, or other luxury car will probably show some signs of wear.
On the other hand, a new car will have a warranty, be in perfect condition, and have that glorious smell.
Now, I’m not knocking buying a new car. If you have the money and can get the features you want in a brand new car, by all means, do it. Especially if you are shopping American; we need all the help we can get.
In the long run, I have been much happier driving an older luxury car over a new econo-box, but the choice is yours. Weigh the options and choose what makes you happy.
A drive from the knobs to Louisville really never was a big task. Take I64 down to the Sherman Minton, cross over and there you are; right in downtown Louisville. I would be there in 15 to 20 minutes tops, with smooth sailing the whole way. Well, that’s how it used to be at least.
Ever since bridge workers found a crack in the Sherman Minton we have to take a detour of several miles to either the Kennedy or 2nd Street bridge to get to Louisville. During rush hour, this makes 15 minute drive turn into an hour long drive, something that greatly angers people from Indiana that work in Derby City.
But finding this crack brings up a bigger problem to me. Are these bridges inspected often enough? Sure it’s great that they inspect these bridges every two years, but I do not think that is enough. Who is to say that crack didn’t start to form only six months after the last inspection? That means 80 thousand people could have been driving on a structurally unsafe bridge hundreds of feet above the Ohio every day for a year and a half.
Even if bridges were inspected every year, instead of every two, that means we could catch problems earlier before they become a big enough problem to cause a shut down.
Furthermore, America could use situations like this help improve the economy.
If we work to improve our infrastructure, that means more jobs. More jobs means helping fix our major job crisis.
Infrastructure is the backbone of America, and we let that fail, we all might as well plunge into the river with it.
For the first time in years, we had glorious traffic-free traveling all the way from Greenville, Indiana, to our summer vacation spot, Orlando, Florida. And for the first half of the way home, it was the same story.
Then, we got to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Possibly the worst traffic organization I have ever experienced.
But let me back up for a minute. We left beautiful, sunny, Florida earlier that same afternoon, and made record time thanks to the complete lack of traffic through Northern Florida and Georgia. It looked like we were going to be able to make it home without having to stop for the night, an act that would save us nearly $200.
Unfortunately, almost immediately upon entering Chattanooga at 10:15 p.m., we were met by blue flashing lights everywhere. Looking ahead down Highway 24, four Tennessee police cars stretched across the highway blocking all lanes and all traffic was being directed onto a road that ran parallel to 24.
At this point, everyone was thinking this was no big deal and we would just run parallel to the highway for a bit and be on our way again, maybe 45 minutes behind schedule. Boy, were we wrong.
For what seemed like five miles, we followed this side road until we came to an intersection where everyone was sure we would enter the highway again. Nope; wrong a second time. Instead, we were met by another set of flashing lights and an officer pointing left with a flashlight.
After the vague instructions from the boys in blue, it was decided that the trucks in front of us probably knew where they were going. Wrong a third time. We followed a truck right back to where we started and had to wait, again, for the officer with the flashlight to point left. But this time, we asked him where we should go.
After getting so-so directions, we tried to follow them. By now, the cops were scrambling trying to get traffic under control. We followed a road toward “German Town,” where we were told we would find a tunnel. On our way there my dad pointed out a sign saying the tunnel ahead only had a 12’6” clearance, and he noted that he hoped no trucks tried to go that way since they are at least 13’6” high.
By the tone of this story, you can probably guess what happened next. Yep, a truck tried to go through the tunnel which, of course, destroyed the roof of the tunnel and police had to close it down.
At that point we were in another traffic jam. The only thing we could do was turn around. We found a gas station and stopped to get a map since our GPS kept routing us through the closed roads.
After spending $5 on a map and 20 minutes in a gas station we picked up a lost young couple from Terre Haute in our little two-car convoy.
Once my dad had figured out about where we were supposed to go, we loaded back into our Suburban and our new friends got in their Mitsubishi Galant to follow us.
Finally, we were headed in the right direction, until we found ourselves on the wrong side of town. A large luxury SUV, loaded to the brim with valuable items, with out-of-state plates, clearly lost, is a bad combination when you find yourself in a less-than-desirable area.
At last, after a very quick stop at a gas station for directions, we made it back to the main highway and were on our way to find a hotel for what was left of the night.
All in all, this just shows that Tennessee traffic coordinators and police have no idea what they are doing when they close down several miles of well-traveled highway for no apparent reason. But beyond that, this story shows that everybody should try their best to plan ahead, and not find themselves in a “Tennessee situation” scrambling at the last minute trying to figure out what to do.
Plan ahead, don’t be a Tennessee.
Official news source for Floyd Central High School
