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Lincoln Town Car - an American dream |
Three musketeers; myself, Mr W and Mr K, were going to
spend couple of days in North America. We had some training to give there. The
first target was Vancouver, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, if
you count the nature around the city.
After arrival to Vancouver airport, we walked to Herz
car rental where the medium size car with Neverlost navigation system was
supposed to be waiting for us. The rental officer made me a sudden question; do
you mind taking an upgrade? We can offer you a bigger car for the same price?
Without any analytical thinking, I accepted the offer. What a silly decision
that was.
Soon the three musketeers were heading to a Lincoln
Town Car, probably one of the biggest American cars. The problems started when
we tried to fit three suitcases to the trunk. The size of the trunk was
enormous, but only from outside. Only one of our suitcases fit into the trunk.
One of us needed to sit on the back seat with two suitcases. Luckily that was
not me.
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Lincoln Town Car - Big outside, small inside |
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Backseat - Mr K. with suitcases |
I was driving the Town Car for the first time. I felt
like a captain of an ocean ship. The car was literally sailing on the waves. The
next problem appeared when I tried to enter the parking garage at our hotel.
The doors and the parking slots were pretty tight for such a car, so my two colleagues needed to step outside outside the car in order to give directions to the driver who was slowly but
successfully driving to the parking slot. That’s when I decided not to accept
such a big car never again.
Training day went very well, business as usual. In the
evening I was happy to enjoy the best tuna ever as a dinner. I also enjoyed my
run at the Stanley park, even if the weather was rather misty. It was end of
the week and the next week we were going to stay in New York. We had to make a
decision whether to stay the weekend in Vancouver or New York. That decision
was easy to me.
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Totem poles at the Stanley Park |
Early Saturday morning I and Mr W. drove our Lincoln
Town Car to Whistler, the host of winter Olympic 2010. Despite of the summer
tires and snow conditions, it was an easy ride with such a car. After
renting skies, we headed couple of times to the top of Whistler (altitude of
2182 m) and Blackcomb (altitude of 2240 m) mountains, slopes having vertical
drop over 1500 m and longest run of 11 km. Sunshine, few clouds and couple of
meters of snow. That was a perfect day I will never forget.
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Sneaker Traveller in Whistler |
It was time to drive back to the city and get some
sleep. Tomorrow will be a big day.
Lessons
learnt:
Think before you act.
Challenge the well known aspects – e.g. the bigger,
the better.
Business is pleasure.
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Above the clouds - one of the best experiences ever. |