After my second accident, I had to get my car fixed at a collision place in Freeport, Long Island. Since I would be without a car, my insurance company told me that they would rent a car for me. They reached out to Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Bellmore and secured an SUV for the Tuesday I was returning from my book tour in Tampa.
I landed at JFK with no issues and headed over to the Enterprise in Bellmore. When I got there, the folks at the front desk told me that they didn’t have an SUV on hand.
“We have a nice pickup truck,” the woman told me.
“Pickup truck? That’s not for me,” I said.
“Well, we also have a Maserati,” she said. “It’s an SUV but it’s $22 more a day,” I told her to forget it. I was not going to pay any more than what my insurance company was paying.
It made me mad. I booked the reservation a week prior to my going away. They should have known I was coming. They even confirmed with me. Why didn’t they have an SUV?
Manager comes out
The manager comes out and looks at the rate that my insurance company paid. “You know what?” she said, “I’m going to let you drive the Maserati and I’m not going to charge you.”
I was surprised. But I happily agreed to drive the Maserati. I got in the car and drove home.
Run in the Hamptons
I felt a little uneasy driving the car. I just kept thinking this is a very expensive car, I better not get in an accident again. Thankfully, I didn’t.
I got to drive the car to the Hamptons to meet my running group. When I got there, I saw my running friend, Jon. “Hey, I took my extra $100K out of the bank and bought this baby. Like it?” I said teasingly. He looked at me as if I were serious. “haha… I’m only kidding. It’s a rental car.”
Driving Home
When I drove the car back to my house in Merrick, I was on Sunrise Highway for a long time. I was driving a little above the speed limit when suddenly, I felt the car start to go slower and slower.
“What is going on?” although I was alone in the car, I said it out loud. “OMG…” I also said.
The car started going 10 miles an hour while I was flooring it. The engine was humming. There was a car behind me. I’m going to crash again. I was a nervous wreck!
I pulled over into the shoulder after the incline and put the car in park. After shutting down the engine, I turned it back on again.
Noticing that the car was neutral, I realized what happened. I must have shifted it during the drive and it went into neutral. That’s why it wasn’t moving… Well, thankfully, I got my car back quickly after this happened. But it was pretty scary.
