I packed my things, wrote a thank you note for Sara on a postcard and left very early in the morning, before any of the girls got up; and drove straight to Avis, which was located inside a hotel. The lady there was rather rude and unhelpful, and said that the cheapest option for me was to stick to my shitty car by paying an additional 160 USD.

I asked for some time to think about it and walked about in the lawn of the hotel. Finally, I decided that it just wasn’t worth it. I would return the car, and then try to get a bus to Fort Pierce, which was further down south. I thought I’d even hitchhike if necessary to get there.

When I went back to the counter, the lady seemed to be in a better mood. I guess she must have gotten something to eat, as that is supposed to make a huge difference. This time, she said that she could reissue my contract so that I would need to pay only 60 USD, but I would still have to stick to my crappy car. This wasn’t such a bad deal after all, so I took it and continued my journey - still without cruise control :(

Florida, oh yeah!

I had been driving on the freeway ever since I had first rented the car at Athens, and I was sick of it. Somewhere along the way, I had got my hands on a map of Florida, so I decided to leave the freeway and take the roads less travelled.

If you used to watch the channel AXN on television, you might remember an ad that used to be shown there quite often. It featured a guy driving his car, with the fuel indicator almost touching empty. He passes by a gas station, but just drives away with a wicked smile on his face while in the background you heard, “AXN - Need that buzz!!!”.

Coming back to my story, you might have guessed by now that the fuel indicator of my car had inched too far to the left, barely millimetres away from “E”. But unlike the guy in the ad, I didn’t drive past the next gas station. I parked, went inside, relieved myself, bought water, bought a sports drink, leafed through some magazines, got back into the car and then drove off with a wicked smile on my face and a voice in my head that said, “AXN - Need that buzz!!!”.

How was I supposed to know that I would now be driving through some really remote parts of America with HUGE ranches on both sides, but absolutely no gas stations for the next god-alone-knows-how-many-miles?!! My anxiety got higher and higher as the needle got closer and closer to “E”. With my stupendous track record of breakdowns, I had given up all hopes of making it to the next town. In my mind I was already planning contingency measures. With no cell phone, no food, barely any water and maybe one vehicle passing by every 20 minutes or so, my options were limited to say the least. I would have to try and somehow flag down a car. Whether anyone would stop for a random brown guy in the middle of nowhere was a different question altogether.

When the fuel level dropped so much that only about 10 more miles could be covered, all sorts of emergency signals started blinking and beeping. Just as I was mentally preparing to spend the night in the car, it materialised out of nowhere : the Yeehaw Junction. Imminent breakdown averted by the skin of my teeth.

Characteristic palm trees of Florida

The rest of the journey till Fort Pierce was smooth, and once there, I went to straight to Nancy’s house. Nancy was a middle-aged, sweet and very hospitable couchsurfer, with two adorable dogs. We chatted for a bit, before calling it a day.