Pulling The Plug

Samantha moved into our lives last Christmas, she came to us wrapped with promises and knowledge that impressed everyone, she actually made life easier for a while, but on a long trip having two women in a car together can be either amusing or scary depending on where you are sitting.

Last month when we drove out to see the kids it was decided that Samantha would go along, it just made no sense to leave her behind, so I worked for a couple of days, more likely a couple of hours, making sure she was ready for the trip.

Right away I could see the amusement that was coming, we were not even a mile down the road and Cindy was already disagreeing with Samantha about which way we would go, Samantha was quick with instructions, and had a sort of sixth sense about what was up ahead.

Driving through Albuquerque, NM of all places Cindy got into traffic and took a turn we didn’t need, Samantha perked right up to tell Cindy she needed to turn around, about halfway into the turn Samantha changed her mind and told Cindy to go straight ahead and take the next left.

Central Ave. in my opinion is a street you want to avoid at all costs in Albuquerque, especially at night, during the day not so bad, but at this point in the late evening Samantha was suggesting that we turn left onto Central, Cindy shouted “Oh Hell No” and went past Central looking for a place to safely turn around, Samantha shouted in a stern voice “Take The Next Left”

Cindy was not happy with all the talk while she was driving, but went ahead and made the left, Samantha now said that Cindy should make a U-Turn and turn right, which would put us right back to where we started, Cindy just glared at me and said, “She is just messing with me now”

We got back on the interstate where we wanted to be and Samantha seemed to fall asleep for a while, until Cindy took an exit to get out of the car for a break, Samantha did not like this and sternly instructed that we should make a U-Turn, Cindy looked straight at Samantha and yelled “I am stopping for a coke, is that all right with you”

Samantha’s next response was for Cindy to take the next left then make a U-Turn, Cindy was getting hot about this time and turned right into the truck stop parking lot, Samantha got just a bit louder and in an angry voice said, “Make a U-Turn then turn left and continue for one half mile”

Cindy said “I am stopping for a Coke” followed by Samantha’s insistence that we make a U-Turn, Cindy leans over and looks directly at Samantha and yelled, “I am getting out of this car for a minute, I don’t care what you think you *#$%*” and Samantha repeated again the we should turn around.

I had to step in at this point in spite of laughing so hard at the situation, I told Cindy, First you need to straighten up and watch the road, and second do you realize that you are arguing with a machine, this is when Cindy reached down and unplugged our GPS, Samantha was now quite for a while.

I told her, you probably shouldn’t have done that because she is really going to be mad at you now, Cindy replied what can she do, give me bad directions? She is just messing with me you know; I laughed and reminded her again it is just a machine.

When we got back on the interstate both Cindy and Samantha were quite, I played with the functions on our GPS changing the car symbol from a sedan to a hot rod, and while there I looked at the voice options, we had Portuguese, French, and Hispanic to go along with the English we were using.

While Cindy was paying attention to the road I selected Paulina to take over for Samantha, and when we got close to our next exit Paulina came to life with instructions in fluent Spanish, Cindy looked at Paulina and said “What the hell?” I told her, “See I told you Samantha was mad at you”.

Because of this exchange we missed our exit and Paulina said something like “Usted necesita hacer una vuelta en U” I think that means to make a U-Turn, this is when Cindy reached over and pulled the plug.