By Phil Roberts, 2/16/2024
It started with a very lucky break, but quickly became more complicated. A few years ago, we had just landed in Barcelona with a plane full of mostly Americans, anxious to travel Spain by car. Having been seated deep in tourist class from Schiphol, we lost any hope of getting a rental car when we saw the dozens in line at the rental car window and heard the man behind the counter announce there were “no more cars” available for the day. Nonetheless, we got in line because no one else seemed to walk away. Maybe a miracle would happen….and, sure enough, it did! The man at the counter reappeared after a few minutes. “We do have ONE car.” He explained that it was an aging full-sized station-wagon. Just one “problem,” he said. “It’s a stick shift.” Well, surely one of the 50 or so people in line ahead of us could drive a “stick,” I thought. I was wrong. Within a few minutes, we were off–successfully negotiating a round-about (much more challenging than shifting gears) and on to Barcelona. Streets seemed wide enough there, but by the time we got to Tarragona, the streets were about as narrow as the car! But no problem, When I was in high school one summer, at my job, I drove a huge water truck each week that was a stick shift and, much to the irritation of the boss, by the end of the summer, I was laying rubber with it each time I pulled out of the gas station. In a succession of places in Spain, I learned that the “Roman roads” on which Mediterranean Spain built their streets, no place was as wide as my driveway at home. Nonetheless, we had a fun, uneventful trip, but wondering all the while why so few Americans couldn’t drive anything but a car with an automatic transmission.