Impulse

I got to drive on the Autobahn for the first time yes­ter­day! Sleek ger­man autos streak­ing across the coun­try­side in close for­ma­tion. Unfortunately, I was at the helm of a Renault sta­tion wagon with 2.5 ger­bils under the hood (Jacques-Claude, Yvette-Marie, and Pepe), so the expe­ri­ence wasn’t quite the adren­a­line rush I had hoped for.

The expe­ri­ence is very dif­fer­ent than dri­ving on a US free­way. In the US, you can get up to speed, set the cruise con­trol, relax, and enjoy the ride. It’s a bit like watch­ing TV.
Driving on the Autobahn is like play­ing an action-packed video game. People pass with only mil­lime­ters to spare. BMWs trav­el­ling twice my land-speed mate­ri­al­ize instantly in the rear-view. Slow-moving trucks pro­vide stim­u­lat­ing obsta­cles to maneu­ver around. Driving on the auto­bahn is more … inter­ac­tive.
Still, it was great fun. I longed for the 225 horse­power & snappy han­dling of my Audi back home. I’ll have to come back sometime.