My two-day road trip to Oklahoma turned into three. Actually, I initially planned on three days but decided to throw caution to the wind and make it home the day after I left. It would have worked out fine, but what do you do when you are having difficulty staying awake? Responsible people would suggest stopping. Other folks would opt for Mountain Dew. Initially I fell into the “other folks category”.
For starters I didn’t anticipate a traffic jam in Waco. For the record, it wasn’t my first traffic jam of the day. Getting through Dallas had been a nightmare of sorts. How do people deal with that day after day? By now I had given up on the back roads scenic journey. I just wanted to get home as quickly as I could. If that meant IH-35, so be it. I’d drive the distance in the shortest possible time.
It was very dark and from appearances road crews were very busy. It was in the neighborhood of 10:00 p.m. There were flashing lights and three or four lanes of traffic that seemed to stretch forever. I didn’t have time for this? Consequently, I had the thought, “I should just get off the freeway and find a hotel room?”
I was already at capacity on the Mountain Dew trick. It seemed to be marginally working. I was awake enough to keep a healthy distance from the eighteen-wheeler in front of me. Trust me, a line of trucks seemed to be the name of the game and my Miata seems fairly insignificant. I had the thought: “If you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the porch.”
Yet truth-be-told, I had garnered a high appreciation for the car I was driving. My first road trip had sealed the deal for me. I stopped in Denton at a Mazda dealer. My need was simple: “How do you turn the maintenance needed yellow light off?”. Actually, the light had been on for about a month or more and I managed to just ignore it. I needed to get the oil changed at 7,000 miles. I only had half of that on my car. All I wanted was for the yellow light to disappear.
The service advisor responded that he would show me how to turn off the light. He insisted that I get behind the wheel and he’d instruct me from the passenger side. He said I needed the experience of doing it myself, so I’d remember how. Did I mention that he proved to be extremely patient and helpful?
For the next forty minutes he provided me a tutorial associated to the electronic features of the car. Why hadn’t someone else opted to do that before? Maybe they did when I bought the car, but trust me a five-minute overview was all I had been provided. This guy was fairly insistent that I get the feel for how the system worked.
In the course of the tutorial, he questioned my need to turn off the maintenance due light instead of having the oil changed? His logic was simply, just because you’ve only driven two thousand miles since the last oil change, the oil has been in the vehicle over six months. Oil gets dirty even though you’re not driving.
So is that really true? Honestly, I don’t know, but the concept is a little confusing for me. Did I really need to get the oil changed? He asked if I had “My Mazda.com” installed on my cell phone. In addition to tracking the vehicles maintenance, it would also provide “how to” videos to familiarize myself with how the vehicle worked. Unlike the General’s sister who ALWAYS reads the owner’s manual that comes with her car from cover-to-cover, I’d much prefer to learn by watching a video or have someone show me instead of attempting to process a written manual.
So, I didn’t have the “My Mazda.com” app on my phone. In addition, I couldn’t find the app logo on my cell phone in order to add it. Surely, it had to be there. The service advisor said, “If you don’t mind, let me look at your phone.” He couldn’t find the app either. He even consulted Siri, but to no avail.
The service rep went to get his cell phone to show me what the app looked like installed. The guy was extremely helpful and kind. Actually, in the course of time I spent at the dealership, he subsequently located the download and at least ensured I had the feature on my cell phone. I didn’t take the time to complete all the required information, but I now know how to find it.
On the outside chance the guy was right about ensuring the oil is changed at least every six months regardless of the number of miles since the last oil change, I asked if they had time for an oil change? Actually, by then the service department was done for the day.
Okay, so the service advisor raised the bar on the helpfulness that should be standard at a dealership. I even suggested he might consider transferring to the Mazda dealership in Austin. It would help me out a lot. He laughed and said, “thanks”.
Before I got twenty miles down the road, I telephoned the Mazda dealer in Austin and scheduled an oil change for this morning. Okay, so I’m certifiably crazy. At any rate, it shouldn’t be a problem. I at least had the good sense not to schedule the appointment for early morning.
The plan would have worked better had I made it home last night. Unfortunately, the Mountain Dew trick proved ineffective in keeping me fully alert by the time I got to Temple. Under the auspices of “better safe than sorry”, I stopped for the night.
The General telephoned to check on my status about the same time I was pulling up Priceline on my phone to make a reservation. And, “yes” for the record, I was stopped at the time.
My ragtop down experience over the past couple of days didn’t work out the way I planned, but I did have the top down from Oklahoma back to Texas. The sky was blue and the temperature was a cool 62 degrees, but I made it work for me.
I did have the thought around 11:00 p.m. last night when the temperature was 55 degrees that the top down might be more effective than the Mountain Dew in keeping me awake. Of course you’d have to be certifiable crazy to do that. I opted not to do that. I’m just a little crazy.
All My Best!
Don
Carpe Diem 