Goodbye Smart Car… Hello Mini

Yesterday I flew to Nebraska where I’m speaking all week. When I landed, I did my normal routine, picking up my rental car. At the Omaha airport, they had a good deal on Mini Coopers- cheaper than almost any other car. The guy at the counter just clarified, “You drive a stick, right?”

“Sure. I learned on a stick.” My 1976 VW Bug. (Wow… that’s a leap through time)

Anyway… I pop in this Mini and… WOW! This thing was slick! It was white with black stripes, accelerated quickly, and cornered like it was on rails (here’s a picture of it where I parked it in the York, Nebraska Wal Mart parking lot).

Many of you might remember my experience a couple months ago with a Smart Car I rented. I’ll be nice. The thing was a piece of junk! It rode rough on the freeway, it shook like a vibrating bed (wow… that’s another memory from when I was a kid! We used to stay in these cheap motels! “Mom, can I please have a quarter!!!”), and it changed three lanes when the wind blew. It was like driving an enclosed skateboard.

The Mini was smooth and quick! It has 6 gears and a little button next to the shifter that says “SPORT,” which seems to change the way it shifts. In all honesty, I have no clue what that button does. But yes… I am a man… so I hit the button and tried shifting through the gears like a NASCAR driver. That Mini has some guts.

Okay… this is funny. So I’m shifting and playing around with the thing and I pass a Nebraska policeman going the other way. He flips a u-turn and pulls me over. I’m thinking, “Oh great. My first ticket in literally over 10 years!” The guy was really nice. He says that I was going 10 over, but he’d let me off with a warning.

How cool is that!!

There’s gotta be an illustration of God’s grace in there somewhere.

I wanna Mini now! (Is that an illustration of coveting???)